sent out of the country unregistered, during the Revolution, by the ports of Măzătlān, and Gūāymăs. But it is upon record, at Durango, that Zămbrānŏ, who was the proprietor of all the principal mines of Guārĭsămĕy and Săn Dīmăs, paid, as the King's fifth, upon the Silver raised from the mines, between the period of their discovery, (in 1783,) and 1807, when he died, Eleven millions of dollars. These immense riches were derived principally from five great mines. La Candelaria, (at San Dimas,) San Juan Nepomuceno, Cinco Señores, La Abra, and Tapia; of one of which, (La Candelaria,) I possess the regular returns for five years, which prove the annual profits never to have been less than 124,000 dollars, while in some years they amounted to 223,082[1]. The ores of the mine, during the whole of this period, appear to have produced from five to six marcs per carga, (of 300 lbs.) and often to have yielded twenty, and even thirty marcs. Indeed, nothing of a quality inferior to the first could have covered the expence of extraction; as, when the Candelaria had attained its greatest depth, (300 Varas,) the water was still brought up from the bottom of the mine in leathern buckets upon men's shoulders. The Ley de Oro (or proportions of gold) in the ores of Guārĭsămĕy, is very great, amounting sometimes to 2,100 grains to the marc. But, notwithstanding all these advantages, the mines are now going fast to
- ↑ Vide Table, No. V.
