POPULAR DESCRIPTION,

GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL,

OF

MEXICO.

GUANAXUATO.

THE city of Santa Fe de Guanaxuato (or, as it is sometimes written and pronounced, Gonnajoato) is the Villa Rica of Mexico, being placed in the very heart of its richest groupe of silver mines, on the porphyritic range of the Sierra de Santa Rosa.* It is one of the most singularly situated cities in the world. One might imagine that the jealous spirit of the mine had chosen this labyrinth of mountain ravines as his capital, for the purpose at once of security and concealment; and the extraordinary shapes assumed by the gigantic masses of porphyry, have frequently the appearance of ruined walls and bastions. These rocks give to the environs an extremely romantic appearance. The hills which surround the city are partly arid, partly covered with shrubs and evergreen oaks, which greatly heighten the picturesque effect. The city itself is entirely screened from view by the

* Humboldt gives the latitude 21o 6′ 0 N.; long 109o W.

windings of the narrow defile which leads into the recesses of the mountain; and when the traveller at length finds himself introduced into the city, he has no idea of its extent, one part being so hidden from another, that, viewed from the streets, it appears to be a small town. It is only by ascending the heights on the opposite side, that a view is gained of the whole valley, broken into ravines, along the sides of which the town is built. Surveyed from this point, the novelty of its situation strikes the stranger with astonishment. In some places, it is seen spreading out into the form of an amphitheatre; in others, stretching along a narrow ridge; while the ranges of the habitations, accommodated to the broken ground, present the most fantastic groupes.

"Nothing can be more ruinous and gloomy," says the Author of Notes on Mexico, "than the approach to the city; but, on leaving the bed of the river, we ascended a steep projecting rock, and entered a street, skirting a ravine, supported by a lofty stone wall, having houses on only one side of it. We soon found ourselves in the heart of the town, winding along crooked, narrow streets, and across open spaces, which cannot be called squares, for they are irregular and of indescribable forms, most of them filled with market stalls. The houses present a very singular appearance. They are spacious and well built, of hewn stone, but the fronts have been newly painted, and of the gayest colours: light green is the favourite; and some exhibit the colours of the Three Guarantees of the plan of Iguala,-white, green, and red, which are now the national colours of Mexico.* We were conducted to the custom-house, where we had only to make a declaration that we had not more than one thousand dollars with us, and were suffered to proceed to the mesón. A traveller is

This was in the year 1822, during the reign of Iturbid.

allowed to carry with him a sum not exceeding a thousand dollars, without paying duty. Our mesón is very comfortable. We have two rooms up stairs, that look on the street, with a table and a bench in each. Our mattresses are on the floor, but then it is paved, and the white-washed walls are almost clean."

The city of Guanaxuato was founded by the Spaniards in 1545. It was constituted a town in 1619, and invested with the privileges of a city in 1741. The first mine that was worked, that of San Barnabe, five leagues from the city, was begun in 1548, twenty-eight years after the death of Montezuma. In 1758, the mines of Meblado and Rayas were opened on the great vein (veta madre). But, for a considerable time, the mines of Guanaxuato attracted little notice, and they were almost abandoned during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is not above fifty years that they have become so famous. They are now esteemed richer than those of either Pachuca, Zacatecas, or Bolaños; and their produce has been almost double that of Potosi. In thirty-eight years, namely, from 1766 to 1803, the mines of Guanaxuato produced gold and silver to the value of 165,000,000 of piastres, or 12,720,061 lb. troy; the annual average produce being 556,000 marcs of silver, or 364,911 lb. troy, and from 1,500 to 1,600 marcs of gold.* All the veins of Hungary and Transylvania together yield only, on an average, 85,000 marcs of silver.† The mother vein

* Humboldt states, that the veta madre of Guanaxuato has yielded more than a fourth part of the silver of Mexico, and a sixth part of the produce of all America.

+ But, although the quantity of silver annually extracted from the mines of Mexico, is ten times greater than what is furnished by all the mines of Europe, gold is not much more abundant in New Spain than in Hungary and Transylvania.

(vela madre) of the Sierra da Santa Rosa extends, in a direction from S.E. to N.W., rather more than five leagues; and within this distance, from Valenciana to San Bruno, there are upwards of a hundred shafts opened, which, before the Revolution, were yielding 10,000 mule-loads of ore, or eleven arrobas (275 lb.) each, every week. In 1803, there were employed on the works, 5000 workmen, 1,896 grinding mills, and 14,618 mules. "The Valenciana," says Humboldt,

is almost the sole example of a mine which, for forty years, has never yielded less to its proprietors than from two to three millions of francs annual profit (from 80 to 120,0001). It appears that the part of the vein extending from Tepeyac to the north-west, had not been much wrought towards the end of the sixteenth century. From that period, the whole tract remained forsaken till 1760, when a Spaniard who went over to America very young, began to work this vein in one of the points which had till that time been believed to be destitute of the metals. M. Obregon (that was the name of this Spaniard) was without fortune; but, as he had the reputation of being a worthy man, he found friends who from time to time advanced him small sums to carry on his operations. In 1766, the works were already 260 feet in depth, and yet, the expenses greatly surpassed the value of the metallic produce. With a passion for mining, equal to what some display for gaming, M. Obregon preferred submitting to every sort of privation, to abandoning his undertaking. In 1767, he entered into partnership with a petty merchant of Rayas, The latter countries, Humboldt says, annually throw into circulation nearly 5,200 marcs; and the gold delivered into the mint of Mexico, amounts, in ordinary years, only to 7,000 marcs. The annual produce of New Spain is estimated by Humboldt at 23,000,000 of piastres, viz twenty-two of silver and one of gold.

named Otero. Could he then hope that, in the space of a few years, he and his friend would become the richest individuals in Mexico, perhaps in the whole world? In 1768, they began to extract a very considerable quantity of silver from the mine of Valenciana. In proportion as the shafts went deeper, they approached the depository of the great metallic wealth of Guanaxuato. In 1771, they drew from the pertinencia de dolores enormous masses of sulphuret of silver, mixed with native and red silver. From that period till 1804, the mine of Valenciana has continually yielded an annual produce of nearly 600,000/ sterling. There have been years so productive, that the net profit of the two proprietors of the mine has amounted to the sum of 250,000 sterling. M. Obregon, better known by his title of Count de la Valenciana, preserved, in the midst of immense wealth, the same simplicity of manners and the same frankness of character, by which he was distinguished previously to his success.* When he began to work the vein of Guanaxuato, above the ravine of San Xavier, goats were feeding on the very hill which, ten years afterwards, was covered with a town of 7 or 8,000 inhabitants "†

Throughout Mexico, the ore is poor, much more so than in the mines of Europe. The average proportion is not higher than three or four ounces of silver to 1,600 ounces of ore. Garces, the author of a valuable treatise on Amalgamation, states, that "the

* During the last twenty-five years of his life, his annual revenue from his mine, was never below from 80 to 125,000Z., and yet, at his death, he left behind him only 400,000 in property, exclusive of his mine; a fact which, Humboldt says, will not surprise persons who are acquainted with the interior management of the great Mexican families, and the unbounded spirit of mining speculation.

+ Pol. Essay, vol. iii. pp. 193-5.

VOL. II,

1*