equally rich. In seven years, between 1771 and 1779, the mines of Mexico yielded over one hundred and twenty-seven million dollars in gold and silver—chiefly silver. One great miner alone, in the course of eight years, presented for taxation four thousand seven hundred bars of silver. All this vast amount of silver paid a fifth of its value to the king. The "royal fifth" continued to be exacted up to the time of the revolution.
By this single abstract from the history of Mexico at that period we may see that, while the British colonies in America were struggling for independence, the Spanish colonists of America were delving in the mines to furnish the mother country with money to carry on her wars. While our forefathers were fighting to free our country from tyranny the Mexicans were riveting yet more strongly the golden chains that bound them to their oppressor!
The great mines of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Pachuca were industriously worked at this period, and, in fact, have continued to be ever since. Men made fortunes in a very short time; companies of men amassed millions, and there seemed, indeed, no end to the amount of treasure the earth was now yielding up.
At this period flourished a remarkable man named Peter Terreros, who, in 1750, conceived the idea of draining an abandoned mine and reopening it. He commenced life as a poor muleteer. He worked at his project twelve years—until 1762. At the end of that time he had only just reached the main shaft; but even then he had cleared half a million of dollars yearly, and had laid up an amount equal to 500,000 pounds weight of solid silver! But his good fortune had just commenced; he drew from that abandoned mine an amount of precious metal well-nigh fabulous. He could not devise ways enough to spend his money. He built two large ships-of-the-line and gave
