sent day, to any thing but mules, without provisions, or water, or resources of any kind; yet, in three years after the discovery, it had a population of five thousand souls, and the town now contains sixteen thousand inhabitants. The fame of its riches brought crowds of settlers from Guănăjūātŏ, Zăcătēcăs, and Sŏmbrĕrētĕ; and, notwithstanding all the local disadvantages which I have enumerated, these settlers have remained. But the mines of Catorce possessed all the properties which characterise those of the North: they all began to be productive almost at the surface, and all yielded ores of a quality unknown in the neighbouring districts of Zacatecas and Guanajuato.
The metalliferous dust of the famous mine of "Zăvālă," which produced Four millions of dollars in two years, was eagerly bought up, at the mouth of the mine, by Rescatadores, (proprietors of Amalgamation works,) who came from Pinos, and even from Guanajuato, (distances of fifty and eighty leagues,) for the purpose, at the price of one dollar for the pound of ore, (three hundred dollars per carga.)
The owner of the mines of Santa Ana and San Geronimo, (Captain Zūnĭgă,) after living upon their produce during his whole life, bequeathed, by his will, (of which I have an authentic copy,) Four millions of dollars, the greatest proportion of which was left to pious institutions. The mine of La Luz, which was denounced in 1804, and is still in full
