# Mexico in 1827/Volume 2/Chapter 14

SECTION IV.
It was our intention, on leaving Mexico, to have extended our journey North as far as Durango, but so much time had been consumed by the first part of our tour, and so much was still requisite for the return by Zacatecas, Guadalajāra, and Vālladolid, that both Mr. Martin and I thought it inexpedient to prolong our absence from the Capital by adhering to our original plan. With the coach, a visit to Dŭrāngŏ from Sombrerete, and the return, would have occupied nine days; the road being bad, and the ​distance thirty or thirty-five leagues; and this was a sacrifice of time which, as there were no French or English establishments to visit, we did not conceive ourselves justified in making. It was therefore determined that the party should take at once the road to the South, by Zacatecas, from whence we were to branch off, through Aguas Calientes, to the Western States.
My anxiety to visit Durango was, however, too great to allow me to be satisfied with this arrangement. My curiosity had been much excited with regard to the Northern Provinces, by the praises lavished upon them by General Victoria, who is a native of Tămăsulă, (called, in commemoration of his birth. Villa Feliz de Tămăsulă,) upon the frontiers of the two States of Dŭrāngŏ and Sŏnōră; and I was determined to reach at least the threshhold of this forbidden ground, into which so few foreigners have hitherto penetrated, and from which all who have done so have brought back such favourable reports. I therefore consulted Mr. Anitua upon the subject, and, finding that I might ride post to Durango in one day, and after passing eight-and-forty hours there, by returning in the same manner, still reach Zacatecas as soon as the rest of my party, I resolved to undertake the journey. Mr. Anitua provided me with horses, relays of which he stationed at the different Haciendas upon the way, and gave me a guide well acquainted with the bridle-roads, by whom alone I was accompanied.
I left Sombrerete a little before seven, on the ​morning of the 16th December, and being admirably mounted, I reached the Hacienda del Călăbăzāl, (my first stage,) at half-past eight.
The State of Zacatecas terminates with the ridge of hills immediately above the valley of the Calabazal; the bajada, (descent,) which is very precipitous, and covered with fragments of rock, is almost impassable for carriages, and even on horseback, occasions considerable delay. Below, a plain commences, which extends, with little interruption, as far as Mŭlērŏs, (seven leagues,) one of the most valuable Haciendas in the State of Durango. Its "Estancias" (stations) for breeding cattle are very extensive, and it possesses upon the banks of a river never entirely dry, tierras de labor, which, from the command of water, might be rendered extremely productive. The "Ranchos de Mescal" alone are let for fifteen and twenty thousand dollars per annum; and from the Mezquite woods belonging to the estate, the town of Sombrerete is supplied almost entirely with fuel. But the system of management is bad; the breed of horses and mules, for which the Hacienda was once famous, has been allowed to go ​to decay; and not half the quantity of grain is raised that might be produced.
The wood, or "Monte" of Muleros, consists exclusively of three species of trees, called Tăscātĕ, Guĭsāchĕ, and Mēzquītĕ, the last of which grows there to a size such as I had not before seen.
I left the Calabazal twenty minutes before nine, and reached Graseros, (an Estancia, or Rancho, belonging to Muleros,) at a quarter-past ten.
From thence to the Hacienda of San Qŭintīn, the stage is long, and the latter part very fatiguing. For some leagues the road runs through a continuation of the Mezquite forest, which commences near Mŭlērŏs, but traverses the lands of several other Haciendas, In this the country is level, and the road good; but about three leagues from San Quintin our progress was interrupted by an immense mass of volcanic remains, forming an elevated ridge or bank, and stretching across the plain towards the North-east, with arms or branches extending in every direction. Towards the West, it terminates abruptly in a mass of black vesicular lava, overgrown with cactus and mezquite, and totally unconnected with the sandy soil around. Indeed it was curious to observe how completely each little patch or accumulation of lava stood isolated in the plain, following the course of the principal bank, but looking as if it had just dropped from the clouds into its present situation.
After threading our way with difficulty through ​this volcanic labyrinth, where we were forced to check our horses every hundred yards, we at last came in sight of the Hacienda, the situation of which is very pleasing. It is surrounded by trees, the poplar, the willow, and the beech, and possesses a supply of water sufficient for the irrigation of an extensive tract of land. The rivers in the North are in general bordered by two lines of cypresses, (Sabinos,) which, from the red tinge of their foliage during the winter months, are visible at a considerable distance. The trees, however, are not so lofty as those of the South, nor do they ever attain the dimensions of the cypresses in the valley of the Missisippi, to the East, where the heat and moisture combined seem to be particularly favourable to their growth. In the very midst of the bank of lava, to the South of San Quintin, I passed a barranca (ravine) composed of rocks, apparently of quite a different formation, full of these cypresses, with a beautiful stream running through it, and a waterfall, the very sound of which, after my hot ride, was delightful. Immediately around the Hacienda there are enclosures filled with cattle, and vast fields both of maize and wheat, to all appearance admirably cultivated. I was sorry to observe, however, the same wretched hovels serving as abodes for the tenantry, which had struck us, by creating so unpleasing an impression, in the vicinity of the Jărāl, and other great Haciendas.
I did not reach San Quintin till past one o'clock. ​From thence to Chăchămōllĭ, where I arrived at half-past two, we found the same difficulty in advancing, on account of several ramifications of the great bank of lava. The Hacienda is situated near a river, the course of which, designated by a double line of Sabinos, we had traced for a long time winding along the foot of the hills which surround the valley. It is the same stream that traverses the plain of Durango, and runs from thence, by the Villa del Nombre de Dios, and the Mēzquītāl, towards the rivers of Jălīscŏ, with one of which it is supposed to incorporate itself, and to continue its course towards the Pacific.
In one hour after leaving Chăchămōllĭ I reached the Rancho del Ărēnāl, where my last relay of horses was stationed. From thence to Durango the road is excellent. It runs almost uninterruptedly across a level plain, which, if supplied with water, would be equal in fertility to the richest portions of the Mexican territory. The corn-lands, (fields, from their extent, I cannot call them,) of the Hacienda of Năbăcoyān, close to which you again cross the river on a bridge of stone with high narrow arches, are really beautiful; and, on the opposite side, the maize crops of Santa Ana, and other Haciendas, are equally luxuriant. Năbăcoyān is supplied with water from a "presa," or dam, constructed at a considerable distance up the river by the former proprietors of the Hacienda, from whence it is conducted ​by canals to every part of the estate. The whole establishment for irrigation is said to have cost 100,000 dollars.
The central parts of the valley, (La Vega,) to which water cannot be conveyed, are abandoned to the Meezquite, which extends almost to the gates of the town, in the immediate vicinity of which there is a little cultivation. Durango, or, as it has been more recently entitled, in honour of the President, "La Ciudad de Victoria," (the city of Victoria,) is seen to great advantage from the road. It is situated nearer to the Northern than the Southern extremity of the valley, with a little line of hills in the background, and the famous Iron Mountain, called El Cerro del Mĕrcādŏ, at a little distance from the gates. I arrived in sight of the town at half-past four o'clock, and should have reached it at five, by continuing at the same pace; but I was met two leagues from the gates by the Governor of the State, Don Santiago Văcă y Ŏrtīz, and the military commandant, Don Joaquin Ayestaran, to both of whom I had been furnished with letters of introduction by General Victoria, and in their coach we proceeded slowly, and did not reach the Governor's house till dusk.
Of the hospitality and kindness of this gentleman, whose guest I became for two days, I cannot easily say enough. Gratified by my curiosity respecting the North, of which he is a native, he gave me every ​assistance in acquiring information, and introduced me, during my stay, at his own table, to almost every person at all calculated to afford it.
Durango may be considered as the first place in the Mexican territories in which the importance of this most valuable portion of the Republic is duly appreciated. To the inhabitants of the Southern and Central Provinces, every thing north of Zacatecas is a terra incognita; and the traveller is surprised, after passing this Ultima Thule of civilization, (well deserving the appellation in as far as its own merits are concerned,) to find an improvement in the manners and character of the inhabitants, for which, from the prejudices of their countrymen, he is perfectly unprepared. Durango, where this change first becomes visible, may be regarded as the key to the whole of the North, which is peopled by the descendants of a race of settlers from the most industrious provinces of Spain, (Biscay, Navarre, and Catalonia,) who have preserved their blood uncontaminated by any cross with the aborigines; and who, with this purity of descent, (of which they are justly proud,) retain most of the primitive habits and feelings of their forefathers. They have much of the loyalty and generous frankness for which the old Spanish character was formerly celebrated; great natural politeness, and considerable activity both of mind and body, with a spirit of enterprise, which, now that the bonds are removed by which it has hitherto been confined, will, in a very few years, give to the North ​of Mexico a great and preponderating influence. These characteristics extend, with some local modifications, to the inhabitants of the whole country formerly denominated the Western Internal Provinces (Provincias Internas Occidentales), which now comprise the States of Durango, Chihuahua, and Sonora and Cinaloa (forming one State), with the "Territories" of New Mexico and Californias. In all of these the white population predominates, and the Indians, where any remain (as in Sonora), continue unmixed with their conquerors, residing in towns and villages of their own (as the Mayo tribes), or hovering (like the Apaches and other barbarous nations) around the settled lands, seeking a precarious livelihood by the chace.
South of Chĭhūāhuă few of the aborigines are to be found, except in the Bŏlsōn de Măpĭmī, which communicates with the Indian hunting-lands in Cŏăhūilă and Texas, tenanted by the Cŏmañchĕs, and other Indios Bravos, who occupy the whole of the unsettled country between the Rio Bravo del Norte and the frontiers of the United States. In Durango there is hardly a single individual of the copper coloured race. At the time of the Conquest they all retired North upon the advance of the whites; and although some tribes of more settled habits remained in Sonora and Cinaloa, the great mass of the Indian ​population took refuge in the vicinity of the river Gila, where it still retains possession of a country, which, during three centuries, has remained almost entirely unexplored. Of the lands formerly tenanted by them, distinguished both by their mineral riches, and by the rapidly increasing trade with China and the East Indies, of which the ports of Măzătlān and Guaymas are the seat, I shall endeavour to give some description under their new territorial division, referring my readers for many highly interesting details to a journal with which I have been furnished by a gentleman who has very recently returned from the North of Mexico, and who is almost the only foreigner, with the exception of Lieutenant Hardy, who has hitherto visited the interior of Upper Sonora, or at least resided a sufficient time there to acquire a knowledge of the resources and peculiarities of the country.
I shall commence with Durango, the most southern of the Internal Provinces, and the only one to which my own observations extended, much as I should have rejoiced to give them a wider range.
The capital of the State of Durango, is situated sixty-five leagues to the north-west of Zacatecas. The population of the town is 22,000; that of the State 175,000. Both the city of Victoria and most of the other towns of Durango, (Tămăsulă, Sĭānŏrĭ, Măpĭmī, San Dimas, Canelas, Cuencame, &c.) take their origin from the mines. Before the discovery of those of Gūārĭsămĕy, Victoria was a mere village ​(Pueblo Ranchero), which, as late as 1783, contained only 8,000 inhabitants. The great streets, the Plaza Mayor, the theatre, and all the principal public edifices, were built by Zămbrānŏ, who is supposed to have drawn from his mines at San Dimas and Gūārĭsămĕy, upwards of thirty millions of dollars.
The towns of Villa del Nombre de Dios, San Juan del Rio, and Cinco Señores de Nāzăs, are almost the only cities in the State unconnected with mines. The two first are supported by an extensive trade in vino Mescal, (a sort of brandy, distilled from the Maguey, or American aloe;) the last, by the large cotton plantations, upon the banks of the river Nazas, from which the manufacturers of Saltillo, San Luis, and Zacatecas, draw their supplies. The cotton, according to the slovenly practice of the country, is not picked and cleaned upon the spot, but is brought, when gathered, to Durango, where it is separated from the seeds. It sells there, however, notwithstanding this addition to the freight, for one dollar the arroba, of 25lbs.
Durango has no manufactures. Its riches consist entirely in mines and agricultural produce, which last is so considerable, that the lands already brought into cultivation are supposed to be sufficient for the support of a population five times as large as that of the State now is. The Haciendas, however, are, at present, upon too extensive a scale to be well managed; an evil, for which the Congress, by abolishing entails, hopes to provide a remedy. ​Most of the estates of Durango are devoted to breeding horned cattle, mules, and sheep, of which last 150,000 are sent every year to the Mexican market. The Hacienda de la Sarca alone possesses a stock of 200,000 sheep, and 40,000 mules and horses. That of Ramos, (which consists of four hundred sitios,) has 80,000 sheep; that of Gūātĭmăpe 40,000 oxen and cows. The valley of Poānăs, again, (about fifteen leagues East of the capital,) contains nothing but corn-lands. It is watered by a river which runs through the centre of the valley, and on the banks of this river are nine Haciendas de trigo, (corn estates,) in immediate succession, which supply the capital with flour, of the very best quality, at from six to eight dollars the fanega.
The natural advantages of Durango are not yet fully turned to account. Sugar might be cultivated to any extent in the valleys of the Sierra Madre, where water abounds, and climate might almost be selected at pleasure; but it is, at present, brought from the valley of Cūĕrnăvācă, at a distance of 250 leagues. It sells, of course, at an enormous price, five dollars per arroba, and, in a moment of scarcity, often rises to ten.
Indigo and coffee might likewise be reckoned amongst the natural productions of the soil. They are found wild in the barrancas of the Sierra Madre, but no attention is paid to them.
Iron abounds within a quarter of a league of the ​gates of Durango. The Cerro del Mercado is entirely composed of iron ores, of two distinct qualities, (crystallized and magnetic,) but almost equally rich, as they both contain from sixty to seventy-five per cent, of pure iron. The operation of smelting these ores is attended with considerable difficulty. It is not understood in the United States, in England, or Silesia, where ores of from twenty to twenty-five per cent, are those in common use; and an iron-foundery lately set up by two natives of Biscay, (Messrs. Ŭrqŭiāgă, and Arĕchēvălă,) upon the banks of the river, twenty leagues from Durango, has failed from the want of a knowledge of the proper mode of treating the ores. The adventurers are likewise cramped in their operations by the smallness of their capital. A Hacienda has been built in a situation where there is both water for machinery, and an abundant supply of timber and charcoal; but as the proprietors do not possess the means of constructing a road for carts, (although, from the nature of the ground, it might be accomplished with a very inconsiderable outlay,) the conveyance of the ores on mules to the reduction works materially diminishes the profits of the speculation. With regard to the difficulty of working them, it might undoubtedly be overcome, as, from the affinity of the iron of El Mercado to that of Danemora, Swedish forgemen would understand the nature of the process at once.
The Constitution of Durango is framed in a very ​liberal spirit. The religious Article, although it declares the Roman Catholic religion to be that of the State, does not exclude the public or private exercise of any other; and there is reason to believe, that it was purposely worded in this manner, in order to facilitate the introduction of a more tolerant system, as soon as the general laws of the Federation should allow of it.
By Article X. great facilities are promised to strangers, who wish to be naturalized in the State.
Article XIII. abolishes entails, and titles of nobility.
Article XVI. prohibits slavery, and declares free, whatever slaves were found in the State, at the period of the publication of the Constitution.
The Congress consists of two Chambers, containing eleven deputies, and seven senators. Their salaries are small, and confined to the actual duration of the sessions. The whole expences of the State do not exceed 100,000 dollars per annum.
The Legislature has passed many good and useful laws, and has seconded by its influence the exertions of the Governor, who appears to have displayed the most laudable activity in every branch of the administration. He has established, principally at his own expence, a printing-press, (never before seen in Durango,) the Mint, the Casa del Apartado, ​(in which the process of separating the gold from the silver, in bars containing both, is carried on,) a glass manufactory, a tannery, and the Fabrica de Tabaccos; from all of which the State is beginning to derive great advantages. The police of the town, formerly much neglected, was, in 1826, extremely well organized, and robberies almost unknown; in consequence of a law passed at the suggestion of the Governor, by which the tribunals were directed to conclude the legal proceedings, in every case of robbery, within the term of three days.
The revenues of Durango are the same as those of the other States. The contingent amounts to 75,000 dollars, the whole of which had been punctually paid up to January 1827.
The produce of the Alcavalas, under the Spanish government, (when twelve, instead of six per cent, was exacted,) seldom exceeded 22,000 dollars; but under the new system, it has risen to 80,000, in consequence of the judicious improvements introduced.
Tobacco produced, in the year 1826, only 25,000 dollars, but both in this, and in the other branches of the revenue, a rapid improvement was expected.
Trade was increasing, and the advantages of the present institutions, in this respect, were beginning to be duly appreciated; a large proportion of the supplies required for the consumption of the State being drawn from Cŏsălā and Măzătlān, while the remainder was transmitted from San Luis Potosi, or ​Mexico, according to the price borne by European manufactures in those two great depôts.
The territory of Durango is divided into ten "Partidos," or districts, the names and situations of which are given in the map with as much accuracy as the total want of statistical data will admit of. There is as yet no general survey, or map of the State, in existence; and as the gentleman whom I recommended to the Governor for the purpose, on my return to Mexico, and to whom very liberal terms were offered by the Legislature, was prevented by family circumstances from accepting the engagement, but little has yet been done towards correcting the errors, with which all the returns hitherto published abound.
The State is well supplied with all the necessaries of life. Maize seldom rises above twelve reals the fanega, and is often as low as seven. Flour varies from ten to twelve and fourteen dollars the carga. Fruits and vegetables of all kinds abound, particularly peaches and potatoes, for both of which Durango enjoys a sort of celebrity. Mules are bought in "Partida," (wholesale,) at eighteen dollars each. Horses at eight and nine dollars. A fat ox or cow is sold for twelve dollars; and sheep may be purchased for one dollar, at the season when the great flocks from New Mexico come down, on their way ​towards the central provinces. In the vicinity of the capital, all the materials for building abound; lime and stone may he procured at a very little distance from the gates; the flint used in the glass manufactory is found at the foot of the Cerro del Mercado; and the best lead from Cuēncămē and Măpĭmī only costs four dollars the quintal. Copper for alloy is brought from Chĭhūāhuă, and sells for twenty-four dollars the hundred weight; and the iron of the Cerro del Mercado, when worked up, as it has frequently been, upon a small scale, into mining tools, is said to be so hard as not to require the usual process of tipping it with steel.
These advantages will be duly appreciated when Durango becomes, as it will do in a few years, the scene of operations for some great foreign or native association of capitalists, by whose labours the resources of the country will first be fully developed.
The State is rich in mineral deposits, none of which, excepting Gūārĭsămĕy, and Săn Dīmăs, have been at all extensively worked. There is hardly a single mine exceeding 100 varas in depth; for, in general, the use of even the simplest machinery was unknown in the North; and a malacate, primitive as the invention is, would have excited almost as much astonishment as a steam-engine itself The mines were worked as long as the water could be raised without inconvenience by two or three "Tenateros," (carriers,) with leathern buckets; and abandoned when the discharge of this duty became too ​laborius. Most of the principal districts may consequently be regarded as virgin ground, and there are few in which the old shafts might not be again brought into activity with a comparatively small outlay. Nothing can exceed the anxiety felt, and expressed, by the Governor, and the members of the Legislature, as well as by all the principal inhabitants, that this experiment should be tried; and were it to be attempted by a Foreign Company of respectability, it would be sure of receiving the warmest support. In such an event, the iron-mines should not be neglected. If properly managed, they alone would be sufficient to ensure the prosperity of the association; for there is no article for which the demand is greater than iron, and none the supply of which from Europe is attended with such manifold disadvantages. Durango might, in two years, be rendered the depôt of iron for Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Catorce, Batopilas, and all the Mining Districts South of Chĭhūāhuă; nor would the success of the iron-mines already taken up by the Companies at the Encarnacion interfere with this prospect, as their market would be confined to the Central mining States, beyond which, from the difficulties of communication, their operations could hardly be extended.
Durango contains a mint; and the coinage is considerable, although the machinery is of the very worst kind, being the same that was erected at the commencement of the Revolution. In the Casa del ​Apartado, the separation of the two metals is effected by the use of nitric acid, and not by sulphuric acid, as in the new establishment formed in Mexico by Mr. Alaman. It is from the mines of Gūārĭsămĕy that the ores most celebrated for their ley de oro proceed. The proportion of gold is sometimes so large, that a very small "tejo," or cake of silver, which I saw at the Assay Office of the mint, was valued at 2,800 dollars. In the other mining districts of Durango, to the Eastward of the Sierra Madre, there is less gold; and in the lead ores of Măpĭmī and Cuēncămē none. About Tămăsulă gold is found pure; and it abounds in the whole Western declivity of the Cordillera, where native gold, or gold intermixed in very large proportions with the silver, are the characteristics of most of the principal veins.
A large proportion of the territory of Durango is situated upon the Table-land, and the capital, though surrounded in most maps by mountains, lies in the midst of a vast plain, which, to the North-east, extends, with few interruptions, as far as Chihuahua, and Santa Fé of New Mexico, from whence again there is a farther communication for wheel-carriages to the great rivers in the valley of the Missisippi, and through them, with the Atlantic, by the Eastern Anglo-American States.
To the West, (both North and South,) the Sierra Madre extends, forming a barrier upon the Pacific side; and the hot low lands of Cĭnăloă occupy the ​space between the foot of the mountains and the ocean. To the North of Cĭnăloă Sŏnōră commences, and embraces the whole space from the shore`s of the Gulf of California to the confines of Durango and Chihuahua, upon the Table-land, (between twenty-seven and thirty-four of North latitude,) comprehending in this vast extent of country almost every possible modification of climate, the heat being varied in proportion as the platforms are more or less raised above the level of the sea. A much less degree of elevation is however required in these Northern latitudes to produce that temperate climate, which is found to be most conducive to the fertility of the soil, and the comforts of the inhabitants; and a rise of a few hundred feet is sufficient to give to Arispe, and the districts in its vicinity, the temperature, which the towns within the Tropics only enjoy at a height of from four to seven thousand feet.
The principal mining districts of Durango are those of Gavĭlānĕs, Gūārĭsămĕy, and Săn Dīmăs, Tămăsulă, Cănēlăs, and Sĭānŏrĭ; (all of which are situated towards the Western boundary of the State, upon the descent from the Sierra Madre to the Coast;) with Guănăsĕvī, Ĭndēĕ, El Oro, Cuēncămē, and Măpĭmī, to the Eastward of the Sierra Madre, and differing from those first mentioned, not less in the quality of their ores, (which are poor, but extremely abundant, and intermixed with lead.) than in their elevation above the level of the sea. ​Gavĭlānĕs, Gūārĭsămĕy, and Săn Dīmăs, lie nearly in the same parallel with the city of Victoria, but about five days' journey to the Westward, three of which are upon the Table-land, while during the remaining two the traveller toils on amidst the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The deep and narrow ravines in which Guarisamey is situated, are Tierra Caliente, while the mountains that shut them in attain the highest elevation of the Sierra Madre, which Mr. Glennie estimates at 9,000 feet. Gavĭlānĕs, on the contrary, stands upon a projecting platform, on the side of one of the mountains, not very far from the summit, and, when seen from a distance, appears more adapted for the abode of eagles, than for that of men. In this last district, the mines are all opened upon one lode, which in dimensions may almost vie with the Veta Madre of Guanajuato. It was discovered by its very elevated crest, which attracted the attention of the "Rumbeadores," (persons who search for metallic lodes,) and was found to produce very rich ores from the surface to the depth of sixty varas, where a kind of black ore was discovered which resisted all attempts to reduce it to advantage. By smelting, it yielded little or nothing, and by amalgamation, although the quantity of silver produced was very considerable, the loss of quicksilver was so great as to leave no profit. On the other hand, the vein, which at the surface was only one vara in width, increased gradually until, at the depth of seventy varas, it was ​ten, and in some places more than fifteen varas wide. An adit was driven, with an intention of piercing the lode one hundred varas below the old workings; but from some miscalculation in the measurements, it did not reach the point where it would have cut the vein, and was given up by the proprietors in despair. Since that time Gavilanes has been upon the decline, and, in 1826, the district only contained one mine in activity, although abounding in metalliferous veins.
Gūārĭsămĕy, the head of the surrounding districts, owes its discovery to the lode of Tĕcŏlōtă, which crosses the high road from Dŭrāngŏ to the Coast, by Cŏsălā. The abundance and richness of its ores soon brought settlers into the vicinity of the mines: the neighbouring mountains were explored, and the veins of Ărānă, Cinco Señores, Bŏlāñŏs, Pĭrāmĭdĕ, Cāndĕlārĭa, Dŏlōrĕs, and Tāpĭă, discovered, with numberless others, which have not yet been worked; the miners of Guarisamey having never attacked a vein that did not leave a clear profit from the very surface of the earth.
Almost all the lodes mentioned above were denounced by Zămbrānŏ; and all produced bonānzas, some of which were very considerable. The mine of Arāna was remarkable for containing, between two small stripes of rich ore, a cavity filled (like the bovedas of the mine of Zăvālă, at Catorce) with a rich metalliferous dust, composed almost entirely of gold and silver. It was likewise distinguished by many ​of those rich spots commonly called "Clavos," which although of small extent in a horizontal direction, were very constant in perpendicular depth. These "Clavos" were worked to the depth of one hundred and eighty varas, though the mine had no shaft; and during the whole of this space, the most ordinary ores yielded from ten to fifteen marcs to the monton of fifteen quintals, while the richest are said to have produced from seventy to one hundred and five. The lode of Cinco Señores is five varas in width, and the quality of the ores fully equal to their abundance: the mine is three hundred varas in depth, which, even at Gūārĭsămĕy, is an extraordinary circumstance, few of the oldest mines exceeding one hundred, or one hundred and forty varas. Near the summit of the mountains that separate San Dimas from Guarisamey, lie the mines of Bolaños and Piramide, with others, all of inconsiderable depth. The bonanza of Bolaños, upon its first discovery, was celebrated, but the mine was abandoned in consequence of the failure of an adit commenced with great magnificence, but so badly conducted, that after wandering in various directions in search of the lode, at a very considerable expence, it came out again on the side, at a very little distance from the point where it had entered the mountain.
On the North side of the same ridge lies the famous mine of La Candelaria, from which a very large portion of Zambrano's fortune proceeded. It is situated near the summit of the mountain, ​immediately opposite to the mines of Cinco Señores and Bolaños, there being about three hours of difficult ascent from Guarisamey to these mines, and nearly the same from San Dimas to the Candelaria. On the San Dimas side, the mountains are very precipitous, and thus the mine of Candelaria has been worked to the depth of nearly 600 varas, by adits driven one below the other upon the lode, the whole expence being defrayed by the value of the ores produced. The last, a most magnificent work, is driven nearly 500 varas into the mountain, with such amplitude that a stage-coach might pass through it into the very heart of the mine, which may be worked 600 varas lower by pursuing a similar plan. The rich ores of the lode have been found, from the surface to the present depth, in separate beds, perpendicular to the horizon, (commonly called "clavos à pique,") and divided by intermediate masses of rock. The beds of ore have been constant from the surface downwards, and in that part of the lode hitherto examined, (which comprises a horizontal distance of near 500 varas,) there are four deposits of ore, with an equal number of intermediate "cavallos," or layers of rock. The lowest levels of the Candelaria are now 100 varas below the last adit, and the owners, who do not possess the means of either draining them by machinery, or of driving another adit, cannot work the mine as it requires, and yet have insisted upon such onerous terms, that they have hitherto deterred foreigners ​from undertaking to assist them. Disappointed in their unreasonable expectations, they now, I believe, would be glad to repair their error by granting very favourable conditions to the adventurers; but even in this case great caution would be requisite, as some claim upon the mines is still retained by Zămbrānŏ's family, and it would be necessary to take precautions against the possibility of a lawsuit before any attempt could be made to bring this most valuable district again into activity.
A little below Gūārĭsămĕy, and in the same ravine, is the district of San José Tăyŏltītă, which contains the celebrated mine of Lă Ābră, one of the last worked by Zambrano. It was opened in bonanza, and continued so to the depth of 100 varas, where the progress of the works was impeded by water; and this was never drawn off, in consequence of the death of the proprietor, which took place at Durango. His nephew, at the commencement of the Revolution, collected what money he could, by extracting the pillars of all the mines belonging to the house of Zambrano, and fled to the Peninsula with the produce. The mine now belongs to Don Antonio Alcalde, one of the executors of Zambrano, and would, if worked anew with the other mines of the district, with a little science and activity, probably yield immense profits. The whole should be undertaken, however, as one negotiation, as, in such insulated districts, to make roads, and organise supplies, for a small establishment, is a very unprofitable task. Of the ​amount of the silver drawn from the Sierra Madre by Zambrano during the twenty-five years that he continued his labours, nothing certain is known; but Mr. Glennie, from whose notes I have borrowed the whole of the details given above, states that he himself saw in the books of the Custom-house of Durango, eleven millions of dollars registered as the sum paid by Zambrano as the King's Fifth; and this fact was confirmed to me by the Governor, who examined the registers himself in order to ascertain it. It is likewise corroborated by the number of mines opened at Gūārĭsămĕy and the surrounding districts in an incredibly short space of time; by the peculiar richness of their ores; and by the immense weath of Zămbrānŏ, (diminished as his profits must have been by the expences of working,) of which so many splendid monuments remain. Nor can one witness without regret the decline of a district capable of communicating so beneficial an impulse to the country around; but which, with its treasures still unexplored, is now almost entirely abandoned.
A little to the north of Gūārĭsămĕy, is the mineral called Bācīs, which was not visited by Mr. Glennie, on account of the total destruction of the roads by the rains: the same cause prevented him from reaching Tămăsulă, Cănēlăs, and Sĭānŏrĭ; all valuable districts; the two last of which are situated on the extreme North-western boundary of the State of Durango. Bacis has been long given up, on account of the difficulty of draining the mines without ​machinery; but it is said that the lodes were extremely rich in native silver, and that, in the principal mine, solid masses of this metal had been actually cut out, when the progress of the works was stopped by the water.
This may be one of those embellishments in which mining districts abound; but there is nothing improbable in the supposition, the same thing having occurred in other parts of the Sierra Madre, as well as in the mine of Barranco at Bolaños; from which I possess a piece of silver, which, but for a small portion of the matrix attached to it, would, from its size and purity, be pronounced to have been already submitted to the action of fire.
From Durango, Mr. Glennie, whose observations I must still take as my guide, proceeded to Chĭhūāhuă, respecting which State my stock of information is very limited.
From the report transmitted to Congress by the Governor, in conformity to the 161st Article of the Federal Act, it appears that the population of the State, according to the census of 1821, amounted to 112,694 souls, of which about one-third are pure Indians, inhabiting the dreary mountains of Tărăhŭmāră, and half civilized by the missionaries who reside amongst them.
The revenue of the State, in 1825, was 69,369 dollars, and its expences, including the contingent, 63,422 dollars. The inhabitants are thinly scattered over a vast tract of country occupied by great ​breeding estates (Haciendas de cria), abounding in mules and horned cattle; but agriculture was in a very depressed state, and the proprietors were looking anxiously to the mines, from which alone they expected a market. Of the mining districts, that of Jesus Maria was alone in a flourishing state; Santa Eulalia being entirely abandoned, and Bătŏpīlăs and the Părrāl but little worked. Some account, however, of these sources of past and future prosperity, may not be uninteresting.
On entering the State of Chihuahua, the first district of any consideration is that of San José del Părrāl, situated upon the Eastern edge of the Sierra Madre, and near the Southern boundary of the State of Chĭhūāhuă, in a level country of easy access. The mines lie amongst some undulating hills, thickly covered with pasture, and of inconsiderable elevation. The lodes are easily distinguished by their rocky crests, which rise above the smooth and rounded surface of the hills. The ores are very abundant, but poor, although from time to time some rich "clavos" have been discovered. This disadvantage is compensated by the trifling expence at which they may be reduced, from the cheapness of the animals employed in the process, and the very abundant supply of grain in the surrounding country. The only article of high price is quicksilver. The salt and magistral are abundant, and cheap; but there is not a sufficient supply of water to move machinery during the whole year, and as the rains are very ​variable, it cannot be depended upon, even for a certain number of months. The mines have been worked to a considerable extent, some of them being 300 varas in depth, and they are almost all in so dilapidated a state, that a considerable capital would be required to put them into repair. The water in the old levels is abundant. Parral has a numerous population, but with the exception of two or three small mines of great promise, and which require an inconsiderable outlay, it is thought that capital might be invested with a greater prospect of success in other districts, where the ruins might be more easily repaired.
On the Western declivity of the Sierra Madre, and in nearly the same parallel of latitude as the Părrāl, are the famous mines of Bătŏpīlăs. To enter into a minute description of this extraordinary district would exceed the limits of this work. I shall, therefore, only subjoin a few remarks upon its situation and produce. Its distance from Părrāl is about eighty leagues, nearly due West, and it is situated in a very deep ravine, similar to that of Gūārĭsămĕy. The climate is warm, yet healthy. The metallic lodes, visible by their elevated crests, are almost innumerable, and by far the greater number of them have never yet been examined. The principal mines are. El Carmen, San Antonio, Pastraña, Arbitrios, Dolores, Candelaria, and Buen Suceso, with many others which it is not necessary to enumerate. The Carmen is the mine that produced the enormous ​wealth of the Marquis of Bustamante, and from which a mass of solid silver was extracted weighing seventeen arrobas, or 425lbs. The ores of Pastraña were so rich, that the lode was worked by bars, with a point at one end and a chisel at the other, for cutting out the silver. The owner of Pastraña used to bring the ores from the mine with flags flying, and the mules adorned with cloths of all colours. The same man received a reproof from the Bishop of Durango, when he visited Batopilas, for placing bars of silver from the door of his house to the sala, for the Bishop to walk upon.
Buen Suceso was discovered by an Indian, who swam across the river after a great flood. On arriving at the other side, he found the crest of an immense lode laid bare by the force of the water. The greater part of this crest was pure and massive silver, and sparkling in the sun. The whole town of Bătŏpīlăs went to witness this extraordinary sight as soon as the river became fordable. The Indian extracted great wealth from his mine, but on arriving at the depth of three varas, the abundance of the water obliged him to abandon it, and no attempt has been since made to resume the working.
In this district the silver is generally found pure, and unaccompanied by any extraneous substance. The reduction of the ores is consequently easy and simple. When the silver is not found in solid masses, which require to be cut with the chisel, it is generally finely sprinkled through the lode, and often ​seems to nail together the particles of stone, through which it is disseminated. The lodes are of considerable width, but the masses of silver are only met with at intervals.
In the mine of El Carmen, the Marquis of Bustamante, after the first bonanza, drove thirty varas in depth without meeting with any thing to repay his labours; but being fully persuaded that all lodes have their alternate points of good and bad, he continued until, at the depth of forty varas, he met with the second bonanza. There is very little water in the mines of Batopilas, excepting those situated near the bank of the river, and these the river itself might be made to drain. The population of the town was, at one time, very considerable, but it has decreased of late, whole families having gone to the new discoveries of Mŏrēlŏs and Jesus Maria; the first of which lies in the vicinity of Batopilas, and appears to possess all the characteristics by which the lodes of that district are distinguished. It was discovered in the spring of 1826, by two brothers (Indians,) by name Arauco, to one of whom a little maize for tortillas had been refused upon credit the night before. In two months they extracted from their mine 270,000 dollars; yet in December 1826, they were still living in a wretched hovel close to the source of their wealth, bare-headed and bare-legged, with upwards of 40,000l. sterling in silver locked up in their hut. I possess two large specimens of the ores: they are almost pure silver, and there is ​consequently no difficulty in reducing them by fire, however rude or defective the process. But never was the utter worthlessness of the metal, as such, so clearly demonstrated, as it has been in the case of the Araucos, whose only pleasure consists in contemplating their hoards, and in occasionally throwing away a portion of their richest ores to be scrambled for by their former companions, the workmen.
Throughout the Sierra Madre, instances of this sort have occurred, for these wild and distant districts are visited only when the fame of their riches attracts adventurers from the towns. For some time, they have neither supplies of any kind, nor intercourse with the more civilized part of the country; and when a few straggling pedlars first penetrate into these fastnesses, the avidity with which their wares are bought up, at the most unheard-of prices, is quite astonishing. The brother of the Governor of Durango, a lawyer by profession, informed me that, at the commencement of his career, he had been employed to visit the district of Refugio, which, like Morelos, was then recently discovered, in order to terminate some disputes between the proprietors of the different mines. He found the original discoverer, Păchēcŏ, surrounded by a swarm of harpies, to whom, not being able to convert his bars into dollars with sufficient rapidity, he had given checks (boletas) upon his mine for a certain number of cargas of ore, for which they had consented to exchange their goods; and he assured ​me that one of these men, who had received a boleta so worded as to entitle him to select his own ores, (a toda satisfaccion,) by waiting, and refusing all but the very richest stones until he had completed his five cargas, obtained nearly 8,000 dollars for an old cloak with a red velvet lining, with which Pacheco's fancy had been much struck.
The real amount of the bonanza of El Refugio was never correctly ascertained, but Don Francisco Mĭrămōntĕs, who acquired as "Habilitator" three bars (or one-eighth) in Pacheco's mines in the year 1811, appears, by the registers of Durango, to have returned to that place in 1814 with 337,000 dollars. The mines, none of which exceed seventy varas in depth, having been worked only by an open cut, (a tajo abierto,) are now abandoned.
To the North of El Părrāl, and about five leagues to the South-east of the city of Chihuahua, is the ancient mining district of Santa Eulalia. It has been long abandoned, and the mines are in a ruinous state. The ores were generally found in loose earth, filling immense caverns, (salones,) of which some are stated to be sufficiently large to contain the cathedral of Mexico. The correctness of this assertion may require confirmation; but there can be little doubt of their magnitude, since the last bonanza extracted from one of them continued for nine years, and one real being laid aside for each marc of silver produced, a fund was formed, out of which the cathedral of Chihuahua was built, and a fund of ​reserve formed, of 100,000 dollars. The ores of Santa Eulalia are generally mixed with a considerable quantity of Galena, which renders them fit for smelting.
Upon the Western descent of the Sierra Madre, eighty leagues from Chihuahua, is the celebrated and recently-discovered district of Jesus Maria. This "Mineral" was denounced in the year 1822, but was at first very little worked, in consequence of the scarcity of provisions, population, and every other necessary for mining operations. It was, in fact, nearly abandoned again, on account of these difficulties, until a few men more persevering than the rest, after suffering great privations, succeeded in working two or three of the most promising lodes, to the depth of fifteen or twenty varas, where they began to extract such rich ores that the attention of the surrounding country was again called to this spot. A search being made among the neighbouring mountains, upwards of two hundred metallic lodes were registered in one year, within a circle of three leagues ​in diameter. The first inhabitants who flocked to this new district, were principally poor people, who became possessed of mines which they had not power to work; and on this account few have yet attained any considerable depth. The deepest, (Santa Juliana,) is not more than seventy varas, but it has produced ores so rich, that they have been carried to Chĭhūāhuă, (eighty leagues,) and to the Parral, (one hundred and thirty leagues,) to be reduced, there not being any reduction works on the spot when the bonanza commenced. Near the surface of the earth, all the lodes contain a considerable quantity of gold; this diminishes as the workings increase in depth, while the proportion of silver augments. The Mineral is situated in a deep ravine with very little level ground about it, the mountains rising on each side from the arroyo. In 1826, the population was rapidly increasing, and there was no want of the necessaries of life, though everything was still exceedingly dear. In the immediate neighbourhood are several mining districts of very great promise, some ancient, and some newly discovered. Such are Rosario, Nabosayguame, El Potrero, Quipore, El Pilar de la Cieniguita, El Pilar de Milpillas, Batopillilas, and Cajurichic. These form a circle, the centre of which is the Indian village of Moris, situated in an open valley capable of considerable cultivation. Jesus Maria is near the summit of the mountains, and is consequently cold in the winter, the surrounding ridges being ​occasionally covered with snow. Moris is in a temperate climate, almost bordering upon Tierra Caliente. Two leagues below Jesus Maria there is a small plain, well adapted for reduction works, and affording pasturage for animals, but it is necessary to open a road to it down the ravine.
The boundaries of Chĭhūāhuă to the East and North-east are the States of Cŏăhūilă and Tēxăs, and the Territorio of New Mexico, with the Rio Bravo del Norte as a line of demarcation. To the West (both North and South,) the vast State of Sonora and Cinaloa extends, occupying the whole space between twenty-two and a half and thirty-three and a half of North latitude, and forming the Eastern Coast of the Gulf of California up to the Cerro de Santa Clara, where the Indian lands South of the rivers Gila and Colorado commence. Beyond these again, the stripe, or belt of missions, composing New California, stretches as far as the Port of San Francisco, (in latitude 38,) and from thence, by Cape Mendocino, to the boundary line in 42º; while Old California occupies the Peninsula, forming the Western shore of the Gulf, which runs parallel with the Coast of Sonora, and terminates with Cape San Lucas and Cape Palmo, nearly opposite to Măzătlān.
Of New California little or nothing is yet known. Old California has been crossed since 1821 by a few ​foreigners; but the first authentic account that the world will receive of this part of the Mexican dominions will probably proceed from Dr. Coulter, a gentleman of great science and activity, now in the service of the Real del Monte Company, who intends, upon the termination of his engagement with the Association, to proceed to the North, and to employ two years in exploring the frontier provinces of New Spain. General Victoria, whose protection I solicited for Dr. Coulter in this arduous undertaking, promised to give him every facility. Indeed the Mexican Government has a direct interest in his success, for it knows nothing at present of its possessions to the North of Sonora, and has ample employment in the more Central Provinces for the few scientific natives, whose services it can command.
General Wavel, whose projects of colonization in Texas, where he possesses a large grant of land, are already before the public, has had the goodness to furnish me with a very detailed account of that province, which will, I believe, be found to comprise all that is at present known of the Eastern frontier North of the River Bravo. The country appears to be rich in valuable produce, abounding in water, and possessing rivers of sufficient size to ensure to its inhabitants the benefits of internal navigation, which have produced so wonderful an effect, in the course of a few years, in the ​neighbouring valley of the Mississippi. Unfortunately for Mexico, these advantages have been duly appreciated by her neighbours in the United States. Some hundreds of squatters, (the pioneers, as they are very appropriately termed, of civilization,) have crossed the frontier with their families, and occupied lands within the Mexican territory; while others have obtained grants from the congress of Saltillo, which they have engaged to colonize within a certain number of years. By thus imprudently encouraging emigration upon too large a scale, the Mexican Government has retained but little authority over the new settlers, established in masses in various parts of Texas, who, being separated only by an imaginary boundary line from their countrymen upon the opposite bank of the Sabina, naturally look to them for support in their difficulties, and not to a Government, the influence of which is hardly felt in such remote districts.
In the event of a war, at any future period, between the two republics, it is not difficult to foresee that Mexico, instead of gaining strength by this numerical addition to her population, will find in her new subjects very questionable allies. Their habits and feelings must be American, and not Mexican; for religion, language, and early associations, are all enlisted against a nominal adhesion to a government, from which they have little to expect, and less to apprehend. The ultimate incorporation of Texas with the Anglo-American States, may ​therefore be regarded as by no means an improbable event, unless the Mexican Government should succeed in checking the tide of emigration, and in interposing a mass of population of a different character, between two component parts, which must have a natural tendency to combine into one.
A proposal to this effect was, I believe, made to the President in 1826, by John Dunn Hunter, whose history excited much interest in this country a few years ago.
The correctness of the account contained in his book of his origin, and early adventures, is denied in the United States, and Hunter has been denounced, by their periodical publications, as an adventurer who imposed upon the credulity of the British public, by representing himself as the hero of a romance of his own creation. To me it appears that his crime has been the boldness with which he vindicated the rights of an injured, and persecuted race, to whom he devoted his life, and in whose service he was at last sacrificed. No one can have known him, for however short a time, without being convinced that, in whatever manner his connexion with the Indians may have originated, he was a real enthusiast in their cause. Upon every other subject his language was coarse, his appearance dull, and his manner totally devoid of energy and grace; but as soon as that chord was touched, his countenance lighted up at once, his expressions became forcible and picturesque, and where words failed him, (as they ​sometimes did from his imperfect acquaintance with the English language,) the eye, and even the agitation of the man, bespoke the truth of the sentiment, which he was labouring to express.
Hunter's object in visiting Mexico, (in as far as I could ascertain it,) was to induce the Government to assign a portion of the vacant lands in Cohahuila and Texas, to some numerous tribes of Indians, mustering in all nearly 20,000 warriors, who had been driven from their hunting-lands on the Missouri and the Missisippi, by the rapid spread of the population from the Anglo-American Eastern States. Retiring across the vast Prairies of Louisiana, and pursued, step by step, by that civilization, before which they fled, they entreated Mexico to grant them lands which they might call their own; and offered, if allowed to settle upon the Southern banks of the Colorado and Sabina, to take the oath of allegiance to the Government, to embrace the Catholic religion, to devote themselves to agricultural labours, and to defend the frontier against all encroachments. This favourable opportunity of acquiring a valuable addition to the population of the country was lost by that dilatory spirit, which, both in Spain, and its dependencies, has been the source of so many evils. Hunter left Mexico without having received any positive answer to his demands; and it is said that, in order to clear himself from the imputation of bad faith before the great council held upon his return, he advised the Indians to cross the frontier, and to ​occupy the lands, the cession of which they had solicited in vain.
This proposal was approved of by some of the tribes, but rejected by others; and a very small body of Indians entered the Mexican territory with Hunter, who proceeded, in conjunction with a few American settlers, to proclaim the independence of Texas, under the name of Freedonia.
They were opposed by the Mexican Commandant of the Eastern Internal Provinces, (Don Anastasio Bustamante,) in conjunction with Colonel Austin, the chief of the flourishing establishment formed by the American settlers at the mouth of the river Brazos; and the Indians, on the appearance of so formidable a force, were glad to obtain terms by immediate submission. It is not known whether Hunter was given up as a peace-offering to Bustamante, or killed in some skirmish; but his head certainly fell into the possession of the Mexican General, with that of Field, a white man, who, like Hunter, had passed his life amongst the Indians, and was regarded as one of their chiefs.
As this event took place a very short time before my departure from Mexico, I was unable to acquire any information respecting it; nor am I aware of the changes, which Bustamante's vigorous operations in Texas may have produced. It is to be hoped that what has already taken place there will serve as a warning, and that the Government will henceforward pay some attention to this valuable possession; for, ​without bearing any ill-will towards the United States, but entertaining, on the contrary, a very sincere admiration of their progress, I may be permitted, as an Englishman, to observe, that it cannot suit our interest to see their line of coast extended as far South as the Rio Bravo del Norte, which would bring them within three days sail of Tampico and Veracruz, and give them the means of closing at pleasure all communication between New Spain and any European power, with which they might happen to be at variance themselves.
I shall beg leave to refer my readers to the Appendix for any farther information that may be desired respecting Texas; and return at once to the Western Coast, in order to close my account of the Northern frontier, with some details respecting Sŏnōră and Cĭnăloă, which will not, I hope, be found devoid of interest.
For these I am indebted almost exclusively to Colonel Bourne, whose extremely curious journal I annex at full length in the Appendix. (Letter C.) I have likewise made use of the information which he has been so obliging as to afford me in order to rectify in my map the numberless errors committed in all former publications respecting Sonora; and I hope that I may by this means be enabled to throw some light upon the real character of a country, which, though little known in Europe, or even in Mexico, can hardly fail, in the course of a few years, to acquire great and permanent importance. ​Colonel Bourne entered Cinaloa, (to the South of Sonora, properly so called,) by its Southern boundary, the river Cañas, or Bayona, (it is known by both names,) which separates the State of Sonora and Cinaloa from that of Guadalajara, or Jalisco. From thence he proceeded to Rosario, the first mining town of importance in the Southern part of the State, and the depôt for the port of Măzătlān, from which it is distant twenty-five leagues. Rosario contains a population of 6000 inhabitants; Măzătlān, though rising into importance as a port, consists entirely of huts, composed of mats, hides, and palm-leaves, all the principal merchants connected with the East India trade having their residences at Rosario, or at the Presidio of Măzătlān, (nine leagues inland,) where the climate and water are better than the immediate vicinity of the port.
At Mazatlan, Colonel Bourne, whose object was to inspect the mining districts in the North of Sonora, (300 leagues from Rosario,) embarked for Gūāymăs, in lieu of performing the journey by land, where he arrived after a tedious passage of fifteen days. The voyage does not usually exceed eight.
Guaymas is situated in latitude 27.40 North, about the middle of the Gulf of California, and both Mr. Glennie and Colonel Bourne state it to be a magnificent harbour, capable of containing two hundred vessels, and sheltered from all winds by the lofty hills surrounding it, and by an island, which ​leaves only a narrow outlet towards the gulf. The town did not exist before the Revolution. It now contains 3000 inhabitants, and 300 houses; some of which are in the modern style, and handsomely built. In 1824, when there was no custom-house in Sonora, twenty-eight vessels were lying in the port of Guaymas at one time, whose cargoes were of course introduced duty free.
The imports consist in Chinese, East Indian and European manufactures, brandy, paper, refined-sugar, cacao, coffee, and tea, &c. &c.; and the exports, in wheat, flour, beef, hides, furs, copper, silver, and gold.
The heat in summer is very great, yet the town is healthy, and neither the Vomito, nor the Cholera Morbus are known: the most serious inconvenience experienced by the inhabitants is the want of water, which is brought from wells three miles inland.
From Măzătlān to Guaymas the navigation is neither intricate nor dangerous: there is much shoal water upon the Sonora coast, but that of Old California is bold and lofty, with deep water close in shore; and the islands, of which there are several in the gulf, are all high land, and visible at a considerable distance. There is, therefore, reason to suppose that, when the population of Sonora increases, as I am convinced that it speedily must, Guaymas will become the principal commercial depôt upon the Western Coast of New Spain; being much superior as a port both to Mazatlan, ​and San Blas, and easier of access than Acapulco, to vessels from Calcutta or China; which, from the prevalence of particular winds in the Pacific, seldom make the Mexican coast to the South of Guaymas, and often steer as far North as Cape Mendocino or San Francisco.
In the Gulf pearls are found in great abundance; they are mostly of a small size, and these are so common in Mexico that they are worn by the lowest orders in the streets. But California, likewise, produces pearls of the very finest quality; nor do I know any part of the world where necklaces of greater beauty may be seen than in New Spain. The pearls of Madame de Regla, of her sister the Marquesa de Guadalupe, and of Madame Vĕlāscŏ, are all remarkable for their size; and General Victoria is in possession of an oyster, recently sent to him from Sonora, which contains a single pearl not yet entirely detached from the shell, but perfect in all its parts, and larger, I think, than any pearl that I ever recollect having seen.
In 1825, a company was formed for exploring the pearl-oyster beds in the Gulf of California, and two vessels were sent round Cape Horn, provided with diving-bells and all the supposed requisites for the fishery. The management of the enterprise was entrusted to Lieutenant Hardy, R.N., who, after a great deal of trouble, succeeded in making an equitable arrangement with the Mexican Government as to the division of the profits; and proceeded to ​Guaymas to take the command of the expedition upon its arrival. Unfortunately, it was but too soon ascertained that the heat and the rocky bottom together, prevented the diving-bell from acting at any thing like the depth to which the native miners were accustomed to descend. One damaged pearl was the result of the first cruize, which lasted six weeks; and after a second attempt, equally long and equally unsuccessful, the scheme was abandoned as utterly hopeless. No blame attaches to the gentleman entrusted with the management in Mexico: the fault lay in the principle, which was not properly inquired into here; and its failure may serve as an additional proof of the risk incurred by the application of new theories to the opposite hemisphere, where any miscalculation in the first instance must lead to disappointment, and may be attended with ruinous expence.
When I left Mexico, Lieutenant Hardy had not returned from the North. He was said to be wandering amongst the savage tribes of the Pimeria Alta, with whom he had contrived to establish a friendly intercourse; and he will probably in this way acquire a knowledge of a country hitherto unexplored by any white. A taste for such investigations has always been a remarkable feature in this gentleman's character. A few years ago, being out of employment, he took a passage on board a merchant-vessel to the vicinity of the Tierra del Fuego, (near Cape Horn,) where he was landed amongst the ​Patagonians, with whom he remained a year and a half, before the arrival of another vessel enabled him to bring himself into communication again with the civilized world. It is supposed, however, that he is not influenced in his present excursion by mere curiosity, but by a wish to investigate the mineral treasures of the Indian country, which are thought to be very great.
From Guaymas, the road to the interior of Sonora lies through Pĕtīc, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, situated in a plain near the confluence of the rivers Dolores and Sonora, thirty-six leagues from the Coast. The intervening country is level, and apparently destitute of water; the rivers from the Cordillera losing themselves in the sands between Petic and the Gulf; yet it is covered with herds of cattle and deer, and inhabited at intervals by Indians of the Seres tribe, of whose treacherous character Colonel Bourne's Journal gives some curious details. Pĕtīc is the depôt for the trade of Upper Sonora with the Gulf. Its inhabitants, amongst whom there are a few foreigners, (three Englishmen, two Americans, and eight Biscayans,) are wealthy, and abundantly supplied with all the necessaries of life; the country around being remarkable for its fertility.
Fourteen leagues to the Westward of Pĕtīc is the town of San Miguel de Horcasitas, upon the river Dolores. To the North of this town, the first ramifications of the Sierra Madre appear, abounding in ​mines of silver, gold, and copper. A vein of the last is worked by Mr. Loisa, a merchant of Petic, who raises the ore at an expence of four dollars the quintal, and sells it, when conveyed to Guaymas by his own mules, for fourteen dollars; at which price it is bought up for the China market, where the copper of Sonora bears a high price, in consequence of the large proportion of gold contained in it.
From San Miguel to Ūrĕs, on the Southern bank of the river Sonora, the distance is twelve leagues. The plain to the South of this town is one of the most fertile districts in the State; but to the North, the road runs along the banks of the river Sonora, confined in its course by two of the precipitous ridges which branch out from the great Cordillera and intersect the level country at regular intervals. These ridges preserve generally the same direction, (from North to South,) and run parallel with each other towards the Pacific, separated by the rivers Dolores, Sonora, Ōpŏsūră, and Bărispĕ, which fertilize the intervening spaces. In all these streams gold has been found, but in none so constantly as in the river Sonora, the mountains on either side being nearly perpendicular, and full of mineral veins.
After passing through the cañada above Ures, the town of Băbĭăcōră is found upon a Table-land, a little elevated above the bed of the river; it extends twelve leagues in a Northerly direction, and contains the towns of Conche and Sonora, with a number of ​Ranchos and Haciendas. Eighteen leagues to the Eastward, again, is the town of Ōpŏsūră, situated upon the banks of a river of the same name, not laid down in any map, but which, after running over a great extent of country to the South-west, enters the river Yaqui a little above Onābăs, in latitude 28.
The vale of Ōpŏsūră is divided from that of Babiacora, or Sonora, by one of those parallel ridges which have been already described. It is about twenty-six leagues in length, and varies from one to four leagues in breadth. The population consists partly of whites, who have preserved the blood of their Biscayan ancestors in all its purity, and partly of Indians of the Opātă tribe, who, in Upper Sonora, compose nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants. They live in towns, and are completely civilized, being clothed after the manner of the whites, with whom they always unite against their barbarous countrymen, the Apăchĕs; and such is the confidence reposed in them, that they are provided with fire-arms by the Government, and formed into militia companies, under the command of their own chiefs. The smiths, carpenters, and other artisans of the State, as well as the working miners, are found amongst these Indians, who are thus most valuable members of the community. They likewise furnish the Haciendas with a hardy race of labourers, many thousands of whom are distributed over the valleys of Băbĭăcōră, Sŏnōră, and Ōpŏsūră, extending in a northerly direction towards Ărīzpĕ, ​(a town of 3,000 inhabitants, now the residence of the Commandant of the State,) and the mining district of Năcŏsārĭ.
The whole of this country is rich in every variety of agricultural produce, for besides wheat, maize, and barley, the sugar-cane grows in the valleys, with figs, pomegranates, peaches, grapes, and numberless other fruits; horned cattle, mules, and horses abound throughout the province, and may be purchased in any number, at about one-fifth of the price usually paid for them in other parts of the Republic; and to these advantages are added a most delightful climate, and the facility of a communication by water with the port of Guaymas, from which the towns of Babiacora and Oposura are only distant between seventy and eighty leagues.
Such a combination of favourable circumstances induced General Victoria, (himself a native of the North,) Don Pedro Escalante, (the Representative of the State of Sonora in the Senate,) and several other Mexicans connected with the Northern Provinces, to entertain the idea of bringing into activity, by the formation of a Company, some of the mining districts near Ōpŏsūră and Ărīzpĕ, formerly celebrated for their wealth, but abandoned during the great Apache war, in the latter half of the last century; when the Indian tribes upon the frontier, irritated by the hostilities of the Spanish presidial troops, made so general an attack upon the Northern Provinces, that all the isolated establishments were ​broken up, and even the towns themselves preserved with difficulty.
For this purpose an association was formed, of which Colonel Bourne is a member, and in its name a number of important mines were "denounced" in the vicinity of Oposura, which was selected, as a central spot, for the principal establishment. Of these districts a very detailed account is given in Colonel Bourne's Journal. The most noted are Cerro Gordo, (South-east of Babiacora,) and the mines of Cobriza, San Antonio, and Dolores, (within a little distance of the same place; the mines of San Juan Bautista de Sonora, (situated upon a mountain eight leagues to the North-west of Oposura, which is crossed in different directions by fourteen veins, all distinctly pronounced,) and those of San Pedro Nacosari, and Churinibabi, (to the North and North-north-west of Oposura).
In all these districts the depth of the mines is inconsiderable, their former riches acknowledged, and the causes by which their working was interrupted, known. The advances necessary in order to bring them into activity are small, for in fact it is more remittances of quicksilver and mining stores, (which must be sent round Cape Horn to Guaymas,) than money, that is requisite. No unreasonable expectations are entertained by the Mexican proprietors, and no onerous conditions proposed: while their respectability and influence in the country are the best possible guarantee to the ​adventurers that their operations will be conducted with good faith, and can meet with no interruption.
The success of the enterprise appears to me unquestionable; and regarding as I do the prosperity of the mines of Mexico, as intimately connected with that of our own trade and manufactures, I should think it a subject of just regret, if, after embarking so eagerly in speculations, of which nothing certain was known, capitalists should not be found to engage in one, the result of which can hardly be regarded as doubtful.
I am aware that many of the statements contained in this, and the preceding books, respecting the mineral riches of the North of New Spain, will be thought exaggerated. They are not so: they will be confirmed by every future report; and, in a few years, the public, familiarised with facts, which are only questioned because they are new, will wonder at its present incredulity, and regret the loss of advantages which may not always be within its reach.
I am willing to hope, however, that my present undertaking may have the effect of directing the attention of many of my countrymen to a field, the importance of which has been hitherto but little suspected. Many of the facts detailed in the preceding pages are known in Mexico only by persons immediately connected with the part of the country to which they relate, but by them they are unanimously confirmed. ​It may be asked, how a territory, possessing such vast natural resources, can have been reduced to the state of comparative poverty in which it now lies? The cause is simple. The precious metals do not in themselves constitute wealth, and as long as all communication between Sonora and the rest of the world was prohibited, except through the medium of the Capital, (Mexico,) and the port of Veracruz, they could not even be employed as a means of obtaining the produce of European industry, which they now command. The inhabitants, forbidden to avail themselves of the harbours upon their own shores, without quicksilver, (so essential in mining processes,) and without a mint, (the nearest was that of the Capital, 600 leagues from Arispe,) thought little of the mineral treasures by which they were surrounded, and devoted their whole attention to the cultivation of those, upon which their subsistence and comforts depended.
Their Haciendas, their flocks and herds, horses and mules, constituted their only care; and no portion of Mexico is richer than Sonora in these: but even at the present day, in many of the larger towns, money is unknown: and sales are effected by barter, the produce of the Interior, (as silver bars, gold dust, hides, or flour,) being exchanged for the imports of Guaymas, and Măzătlān at Pĕtīc, or Rŏsārĭŏ, Ălămŏs, and Cŏsălā. There is no mint, as yet, nearer than Durango or Guadalajara, and until an establishment of this nature be formed, the ​circulating medium will of course continue very small: but the exports of the precious metals in bars and grains to Calcutta and Canton are very considerable; the intercourse with India and China being already more frequent than that with any of the Southern Provinces of the Republic.
The inhabitants, who are frank and cheerful in their manners, industrious, brave, and hospitable in the highest degree, will soon learn to turn the advantages of their present position to account. From their former enemies the Apaches, and other savage tribes, North of Arispe, and the Presidio of Fonteras, (latitude 31,) they have no longer any thing to apprehend, for their enmity was always directed against the European Spaniards, who were obliged to avail themselves of the intervention and influence of the Creoles in order to obtain a cessation of hostilities.
The Apaches are said to be an independent and high-minded race, averse to all the arts of civilized life, excellent horsemen, skilful in the use of the lance, and formidable marksmen with the bow and arrow. They do not possess fire-arms, and are fortunately too distant from the frontiers of the United States to obtain a supply, (as the Comanches have done on the borders of Cohahuila and Texas,) from the lawless traders, who precede the advance of civilization across the wilderness. They require little beyond the undisturbed possession of their hunting-grounds, in which they were continually molested by the Spaniards; and as the Creoles already possess ​ten times as much ground as they can possibly require, there is little reason to fear an interruption of the good understanding, which at present prevails.
I shall close my observations upon Upper Sonora with one more remark. Although there is no part of the country in which there are so many Creole families of pure Spanish descent, or where old Spanish names so continually recur, (as Moreno, Rodriguez, Fernandez, Espinosa, &c. &c.) Sonora has proved itself to be quite as decided as the Southern and Central Provinces, in the cause of Independence. A great number of the young men who joined the Insurgent armies in 1810, were natives of the North, sons and nephews of the most respectable landed proprietors of the Internal Provinces; and General Victoria himself, whose real name is Fernandez, although he has been induced by the general wish of his countrymen to retain that which he adopted during the war, was, as I have already stated, a native of Tămăsulă, where his family possessed considerable property. If there are particular spots, (as Alamos, or Rosario,) where other feelings with regard to Spain are thought to prevail, it is because they are in the hands of old Spaniards, who form, wherever they congregate together in any numbers, a little isolated knot, whose dislike to the present order of things is as evident, as it is innocuous.
The road from Arispe to the Villa del Fuerte, the capital of Cinaloa, runs nearly due South about one hundred and twenty leagues. The principal towns ​on the way are Onābăs (on the Southern bank of the river Yaqui,) and Los Ălămŏs, a celebrated mining district, situated between the rivers Mayo and El Fuerte, in a barren plain, where supplies, even of the necessaries of life, are drawn from the valleys of Oposura and Sonora in the upper part of the State.
The mines of Alamos lie nearly five leagues to the North of the town. They resemble those of Catorce in the character of the veins, which are mostly from six to eight varas in breadth, and produce ores varying from fourteen to thirty marcs of silver to the monton. The principal mining proprietors are four brothers of the family of Almādŏs, who are said to possess a capital of half a million of dollars each: but the merchants are numerous and wealthy, and the town itself, which took its origin from the mines, is built with considerable magnificence. It contains six thousand inhabitants, and from three to four thousand more are employed daily in the mines.
To the North-east of Alamos, and nearly due West of Jesus Maria, upon the slope of the Sierra Madre, towards the Gulf, lies the "Mineral" of San Jose de Mŭlātŏs, discovered in the year 1806, and registered as a "Placer de Oro," on account of the quantity of gold found in the small stream which descends from Mŭlātŏs to the river below. On investigating the ravine, from which this stream issued, three elevated crests were discovered, (one of them more than one hundred varas in height,) ​intersected in all directions by small threads, or veins, of white earth, containing gold in so large a proportion that the ore of inferior quality was disposed of at twelve and fifteen dollars the arroba, while the richest sold for two hundred dollars.
Two of the crests have been extensively worked, but the third is nearly virgin. All three may be explored to advantage by commencing at the summit, and sinking through the crest to the level of the ground, as the veins of gold traverse every part of the rock. The gold of Mulatos is nearly pure, the lowest quality being twenty-three "quilates," while it sometimes rises to twenty-three quilates, three and a half grains. Some idea may be formed of the abandoned state of the district from the facts related by Mr. Glennie, to whom I am indebted for the above account, and who says, that when he visited Mulatos, he found a number of Indians suspended by ropes upon the side of the rocks, or crests described above, picking out the earth in which the gold is contained with wooden stakes, but without attempting an excavation of any kind.
I much regret that Mr. Glennie's continual absences from Mexico should have prevented him from continuing the account of his visit to the Northern Mining Districts, of which I have made such frequent use in the preceding parts of this Section. He visited both Ālămŏs and Cŏsălā, of which I shall have ​occasion to speak subsequently; and it would have been a satisfaction both to the public and to myself to corroborate statements, many of which may be thought to require confirmation, by the evidence of so intelligent and indefatigable an observer. I must, however, remark generally, that Mr. Glennie's views, with regard to the riches of Sierra Madre, (which he terms one mine from Guarisamey to Jesus Maria,) coincide entirely with those entertained by Colonel Bourne; and that the opinions of both are confirmed by all the Mexicans who have visited the Internal Provinces; by the official documents, frequently alluded to in the foregoing Books; and by the unanimous evidence of a number of most respectable individuals, whom I had an opportunity of consulting, myself, upon the subject at Durango and elsewhere.
To the North and North-west of Alamos, between the rivers Yaqui and Mayo, there are vast plains inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians; who, like the Opatas of Babiacora, have become reconciled to the restraints of civilized life. The Yaqui tribe possesses a number of towns on the Southern bank of the river of that name, each surrounded by fields and gardens in the highest state of cultivation; and South of the river Mayo, the Mayos alone form a population of 60,000 souls. Their capital, Santa Cruz, contains 10,000 inhabitants. Both the Yaquis and Mayos are docile and industrious, and supply the mining districts and farms with labourers, ​and the towns with artisans, many of whom are by no means unskilful in their respective trades.
To the South of Alamos, in the direction of El Fuerte, there is little or no population; but the country is level, and the road practicable for carriages: the distance is twenty-four leagues.
El Fuerte was originally a military station, established by the Spaniards in their progress towards the North. Since the union of Sonora with Cinaloa, it has been selected as the residence of the Governor of the State, the Congress, and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice; and it now contains four thousand inhabitants. The situation is not particularly favourable; as, notwithstanding the vicinity of the river, the country about the town is unproductive, and the heat in summer insupportable. The Tierra Caliente of Cinaloa extends from El Fuerte, or rather from Alamos, to the confines of Guadalajara; it is one vast sandy plain, destitute of vegetation, except in the rainy season, or in spots where the vicinity of the mountains, or the confluence of two large streams, ensure a constant supply of water. This is the case at Cūlĭăcān, the most ancient and populous town in Cinaloa, situated upon a river of the same name, eighty leagues South of El Fuerte. It contains eleven thousand inhabitants; and the country about it is well watered and highly productive.
Cŏsălā, thirty-five leagues South of Culiacan, is the next town of any note on the road towards ​Jălīscŏ. It derives its importance entirely from its mines, one of which, called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, is very celebrated. It belongs to Don Francisco Iriarte, a relation of the President's, who refused an offer of one million of dollars, made in 1825, by an association of Foreigners, on condition that he should allow them to work his mine for a term of three years. Guădălūpĕ is free from water, and situated at a considerable elevation above the plain; it contains a vein of gold of considerable breadth, and its produce might be increased to ten times its present amount; but the proprietor, a man of very peculiar habits, often refuses to work the mine for months together, and when compelled to employ labourers upon it, in order to prevent the loss of his title by exposing the mine to a denunciation from some other quarter, never allows more than four arrobas of gold (100lbs weight) to be raised in the week.
The idea of a man possessed of boundless wealth, but refusing to make any use of the treasures within his reach, will seem incredible in Europe; but Iriarte really does not know the value of money. With at least a million of dollars in gold and silver in his house, he lives in a habitation, the furniture of which is composed of buffaloe skins, with wooden tables, and chairs of so massive a construction that it requires two or three men to lift them from one part of the room to the other. His sons, whom he never permits to leave the town, are forced to attend to a little retail shop in Cŏsălā; and his daughter, who ​is pretty, is suffered to grow up in uneducated idleness. His own habits are abstemious; and his religious notions extremely strict. He dislikes allusions to his wealth, and considers any enquiry respecting his mine almost as a personal offence. To all proposals for a cession of the right of working it, even for a limited time, he has constantly given the same answer, namely, that he does not want money, and that if he did, those who offer him the most liberal terms know best that he could take out of his mine double the amount of any thing that they could give, in less time than they would themselves require to raise the money.
Under these circumstances but little is to be expected from the mine of Guadalupe until the death of its eccentric proprietor; but if any faith can be reposed in the uniform opinions of those best acquainted with Cŏsălā, its wealth is almost unparalleled; and the three sons of Iriarte must, at some future period, astonish the world by the immensity of their resources.
Cŏsălā and Ōpŏsūră are almost the two only spots in Mexico, in which the inhabitants are afflicted with wens, a disease so common in the mountainous districts of Columbia that the possibility of discovering a remedy for it has frequently occupied the attention of the Legislature. In both places it is attributed to some peculiarity in the water, which descends from the Sierra Madre strongly impregnated with mineral substances. It is singular ​however that similar effects should not be produced by it in situations which differ apparently but little from those designated as the seats of the disorder, for instance in the valley of Sŏnōră, nearly parallel with that of Ōpŏsūră, and in Cūlĭăcān, which is almost on the same line with Cŏsălā. Perhaps the effect diminishes as the distance from the Sierra increases; for Cŏsălā is only five leagues from the foot of the Cordillera, and may consequently be more immediately under the influence of the causes calculated to engender the disease. This supposition is confirmed by the increased violence of the affection at Santa Ana, a rancho, where the ascent towards the Table-land commences, and where all the inhabitants without exception are victims to this disgusting complaint.
From Cŏsălā to the Capital, or the Central States of the Republic, there are two routes; the one by Rosario, the river Cañas, and Guădălajāră, which is impassable during the rainy season, the other due East from Cŏsălā, across the Sierra Madre to Durango. By the first of these Colonel Bourne entered Cinaloa, and he quitted it by the second, the rains having commenced at Cūlĭăcān on the 24th of June, and cut off all communication by the coast in the course of a very few days. He describes the ascent to the Table-land as full of difficulties, and extremely precipitous, but he nevertheless contrived to reach Durango in eight days by a road which crosses the mountains between Păpăsqŭiāro and Gūārĭsămĕy, ​without passing through a single town, or Pueblo of any importance.
I have endeavoured to compress into this Section all the data now in my possession with respect to a part of Mexico, which, though least known, I am inclined to regard as the most interesting portion of the territories of the Republic. Its progress has been hitherto impeded by obstacles which no longer exist. Of its resources we possess only a very imperfect idea; but, should the details given in the preceding pages have the effect of attracting the attention of capitalists, and scientific men, I am convinced that a field will be opened to European enterprise superior in richness to any that the New World has yet presented.
In stating this I am far from wishing to encourage delusive hopes. Inquiry must precede speculation, or the errors will be repeated which have already proved so detrimental to the interests of the adventurers engaged in the mines of the Central States of New Spain. But the subject is of sufficient importance to merit attention; and attention, should it lead to ulterior projects, would, I am inclined to believe, be sufficient to ensure success.
* ↑ Englishmen will probably be amused at this being pointed out as a remarkable quality in a river; but those of Mexico are even more uncertain than the rivers of Spain, and there, I recollect, that on the morning when the present Queen entered Madrid, an order was issued for watering the bed of the Manzanares, lest Her Majesty should be incommoded by the dust.
* ↑ All the tribes which held no communication with the missionaries on the frontier, but maintained an independent existence, were thus designated.
* ↑ Article XI. "The Religion of the State is, and shall ever be, the Roman Catholic, which is that adopted by the Federation."
* ↑ 1. Durango. 2. Nombre de Dios. 3. San Juan del Rio. 4. Cinco Señores de Nazas. 5. Cuencame. 6. El Oro. 7. Indee. 8. Papasquiaro. 9. Tamasula. 10. Guarisamey.
* ↑ "Mineral" is the term now used to express a Mining district, in lieu of "Real," which is thought to savour too much of Royal rights. In this, as well as in some other terms employed in this work, I fear that I have sinned against the prevailing notions of the day; for I have actually put into print "Puente del Rey" instead of "Puente Nacional," and talked of Counts, Marquises, and other obsolete titles, in lieu of designating their proprietors by their present appellation of citizens, which has been bestowed upon them by the simplicity of Republican phraseology.
* ↑ Territorio, as has been already stated, means a district, or province, the population of which is not yet sufficiently considerable to entitle it to rank as an independent State.
* ↑ Vide Appendix, Letter B.
* ↑ 4 grains= 1 quilate; 24 quilates, pure gold.