There are, however, a few to the south-east. Alamos contains some very good streets, well paved, and the houses are generally built of stone, or brick stuccoed white. Those which surround the square are of more modern architecture, and belong to the principal miners and merchants, who are numerous and wealthy. There are many capitalists in Alamos with from two to four hundred thousand dollars in silver and gold; and I have been informed by respectable authority, that the merchants and miners have at least six millions of dollars in specie and bars. Provisions are excessively dear, being brought from a great distance, for the country round is very sterile, or at least has no water to fertilize it. That used in the town is drawn from deep wells, and is very bad, and scarce. Wheat and corn are sent to Alamos from Ures, and the rivers Oposura and Dolores. Yet the inhabitants live sumptuously. They differ very much in character from the natives of Upper Sonora, for they are proud, reserved, and unsociable even amongst themselves, and have no amusements except gambling, which they carry to excess. The new church of stone is a very elegant building; it was only finished in 1826. In the inside of the altar they have placed in the wall, in carved stone, the arms of the King of Spain. The Alameda is a pleasant and agreeable promenade, formed of avenues of poplars, with stone seats. There are two companies of volunteers, or militia, consisting of about two hundred men, commanded by Don Francisco Almado. Alamos is noted for containing the greatest female beauty in the Mexican Republic, the daughter of a very respectable merchant. The population may be estimated at six thousand souls, and from three to four thousand more are employed in the mines.
To the westward and north-west of this place, as far as the river Yaqui, and up that river to near the Presidio of Buenavista, lies a fine and fertile country, inhabited by the Yaqui and Mayo Indians, who are very numerous, and live in towns. Those of the Yaqui tribe are Belen, Huadibis, Raum, Potan, Bican, Torin, Bacum, and Cocorun, which extend along the southern bank of the river, surrounded by beautiful gardens, highly cultivated, each family having one. Belen alone is on the north bank, and nearest the Gulf of California.
