which are seen from a distance long before the spires of the city strike the view. It is incredible, the quantity of cinders that surround the city, in piles ten or fifteen feet high. Next the creek, they have formed a bank of them, to check the encroachments of the stream, and it has presented an effectual barrier. I am told, that a European employed some hands, and wrought at the cinders, and that they yielded 1 dollar 25 cents for each per day; but this not answering his expectations, he ceased his proceedings. At Mauperne, there are one gold and seven silver mines.”*

The mines of Chihuahua lie to the east of the great real of Santa Rosa de Cosiguiriachi, situated at the foot of the sierra de los Metates. The population of Cosiguiriachi is said to amount to nearly 11,000 souls. To the west of the Rio de Conchos is the town and real of San Pedro de Batopilas, with a population of 8,000, which was formerly celebrated for the great Iwealth of its mines. To the same rich groupe (the third in Humboldt's enumeration, and the most northern in Mexico, extending from lat 26° 50′ to 29° 10′ N.; and from long 106° 45′ to 108° 50′ W.) belongs the real of San José de Parral, situated to the south of Chihuahua, and the residence of a deputation of mines: the population is stated at 5,000. This real, as well as the town of Parras, received its name from the great number of wild vine-shoots with which the country was covered on the first arrival of the Spaniards. A fifth mining district within this intendancy, is that of Guarisamey, a very old real, on the road from Durango to Copala, with a population of 3,800. It belongs to the groupe of Durango and Sonora, ranked by Humboldt as the second in point of actual produce; extending from lat 23° to 24° 45 N., and from long 106° 30′ to 109° 50′ W.

* Pike's Exploratory Travels, p. 352.

The other chief places in this intendancy, according to Humboldt, are, San Juan del Rio, to the S. W. of the lake of Parras, population 10,200; Nombre de Dios, population 6,800; Pasquiaro, a small town to the S. of the Rio de Nasas, with a population of 5,600; Mapimis, a military post (presidio), to the east of the Cerro de la Cadena, on the confines of the Bolson de Mapimi,-population, 2,400; Saltillo, on the confines of Cohahuila and Leon, in the midst of arid plains, towards the eastern declivity of the tableland, the population 6,000; and Parras, near the lake of the same name, west of Saltillo. The last two towns are included by Major Pike in the province of Cohahuila, and have already been noticed. The same Traveller mentions, as one of the chief places of Durango, Pollalein, situated at the foot of the Sierra Madre, and supposed to contain 25,000 souls.”

No such place is mentioned by Humboldt, and it is probably a mistake for Parral, the population being overrated. The river Conchos, the largest in the province, has its source, according to the American Traveller, in the Sierra Madre, near Batopilas, in lat 28° N.: after a course of about 300 miles, during which it receives the Rio Florida from the east, and the Rio San Pablo from the west, it joins the great Rio del Norte in lat 31°. The Rio San Pablo, the large western branch of the Conchos, has its head in lat 28° 50′, and after a course of about 150 miles, discharges into the latter at Bakinao: in summer, it is nearly dry; in the rainy season, impassable. The Rio Florida takes its rise in lat 26° 30′ N., and has a course of similar length: about mid-way on its eastern bank, is situated the presidio of Guaxequillo. The Rio de Nasas forms in part the line between New Biscay and Cohahuila: it runs north, and empties itself into the lake Cayman on the borders of the Bolson de Mapimi. This stream is also nearly dry in summer, but, at some periods, impassable. Lake Cayman and

lake Parras, situated at the feet of the mountains, are both full of fish.

The climate of this intendancy is stated by Major Pike to be dry, and the heat, at that time of year which precedes the rainy season, very great. The rains commence in June, and continue, by light showers, till September. During the remainder of the year, there falls neither rain nor snow to moisten the earth, and the atmosphere becomes highly electrified.* The agricultural produce consists of wheat, maize, rice, oats, cotton, flax, indigo, and the fruit of the vine. To the north of Chihuahua, about thirty miles to the right of the main road, there is some pinetimber; in one place, near a spring, Major Pike noticed a solitary walnut-tree; and on all the small streams, there are, he says, shrubby cotton-trees. "With these few exceptions, the whole province is a naked, barren plain, which presents to the eye an arid, unproductive soil; and more especially in the neighbourhood of mines, even the herbage appears to be poisoned by the qualities of the land." New Biscay trades both with the southern provinces and with New Mexico and Sonora, furnishing to the more populous parts of the kingdom a great number of horses, mules, beeves, sheep, and goats, in return for dry goods, European furniture, ammunition, books, &c., which are brought from the capital on mules. "Some individuals make large fortunes by being the carriers from Mexico to Chihuahua, the freight being

*The atmosphere had become so electrified, that, when we halted at night, in taking off our blankets, the electric fluid would almost cover them with sparks; and in Chihuahua, we prepared a bottle with gold leaf as a receiver, and collected sufficient fluid from a bear-skin to give a considerable shock to a number of persons. This phenomenon was more conspicuous in the vicinity of Chihuahua, than in any other part that we crossed."-PIKE, p. 348.

eight dollars per cent; and they generally put 300 lb. on each mule. The merchants make their remittances twice a year in bullion. Goods sell at Chihuahua about 200 per cent higher than the prices of our Atlantic sea-port towns.* They manufacture some few arms, blankets, stamped leather, embroidery, coarse cotton and woollen cloths, and a species of carpeting." This Traveller concludes his statistical account of the province by stating, that law here is merely a shadow, the only laws that can be said to be in force being the military and the ecclesiastical; that the corruption of morals is general,-the natural concomitant of a great degree of luxury among the rich, and of misery among the poor; that the Roman Catholic religion is in full force, but the inferior clergy are much dissatisfied.

There are no slaves in this province, nor any Indians of the Aztec race;-Humboldt says, not a single tributary individual, and "all the inhabitants are either white, or consider themselves as such." Major Pike explains the state of things more specifically. Except the Apaches, who inhabit the Bolson de Mapimi, there are, he says, no uncivilised savages in this province. "The Christian Indians are so incorporated amongst the lower grades of Mestizoes, that it is scarcely possible to draw the line of distinction, except at the ranchos of some nobleman or large landholder, where they are in a state of vassalage. This class of people laid a conspiracy, which was so well concerted as to baffle the research of the Spaniards for a length of time, and to occasion them the loss of several hundreds of the inhabitants. The Indians used to go out from their villages in small parties: in a short time, a part would return with a report that

* This was in 1807. Horses then averaged at 6 dollars; some would fetch 100 dollars; trained mules, 20 dollars; rice sold for 4 dollars the cwt.

they had been attacked by the Indians. The Spaniards would immediately send out a detachment in pursuit, when they were led into an ambuscade, and every soul cut off. They pursued this course so long, that the whole province became alarmed at the rapid manner in which their enemies multiplied; but some circumstances leading to a suspicion, they made use of the superstition of these people for their ruin. Some officers disguised themselves like friars, and went round amongst the Indians, pretending to be possessed of the spirit of prophecy. They preached up to them, that the day was approaching when a general deliverance from the Spanish tyranny was about to take place, and invited the Indians to join with them in promoting the work of God. The poor creatures came forward, and, in their confessions, stated the great hand that had already been put to the work. After they had ascertained the nature and extent of the conspiracy, and obtained a body of troops, they commenced the execution, and put to death about four hundred of them. This struck terror and dismay throughout the Indian villages, and they durst not rise to support their freedom and independence."

To the west of New Biscay, lies the intendancy of

SONORA,

Comprehending the three provinces of Cinaloa (or Sinaloa), Ostimury, and Sonora Proper. The first extends from the Rio del Rosario to the Rio del Fuerte (from lat 23° to 26° 45'); the second, from the Rio del Fuerte to the Rio del Mayo (in lat 27° 30′); and the third (called in some old maps. New Navarre) comprises all the northern part of the intendancy. Its northern limits are very uncertain. The villages of the district of Pimeria alta are separated from the