The vein of San Barnabe was begun in the year 1548, twenty-eight years after the death of Montezuma, a circumstance which must appear so much the more remarkable, as the town Zacatecas is distant in a straight line more than 100 leagues from the valley of Tenochtitlan. It is said that the silver minerals of the district of Zacatecas were discovered by the muleteers who travelled between Mexico and Zacatecas. In this district near the basaltic-hill of Cubilete the mine of San Barnabè exhibits the most antient mining operations. The principal vein of Guanaxuato (la veta madre) was discovered somewhat later, on digging the pits of Mellado and Rayas. The first of these pits was begun on the 15th, and the second on the 16th of April in the year 1558. The mines of Comanjas are undoubtedly still more antient than those of Guanaxuato. As the total produce of the mines of Mexico till the beginning of the 18th century, has never been more than 600,000 marcs of gold and silver a year, we may conclude that in the 16th century they did not labour with very great activity in the extraction of the minerals. The veins of Tasco, Tlapujahua, Zultepeque, Moran, Pachuca, and Real del Monte, and those of Sombrerete, Bolaños, Batopilas and Rosario have afforded from time to time immense wealth; but their produce has been less uniform than that of the mines of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, and Catorce.

The silver extracted in the 37 districts of mines, into which the kingdom of New Spain is divided, is deposited in the Provincial Treasuries, 'established in the chief places of the Intendancies; and it is from the receipts of these caxas reales that we are judge of the quantity of silver furnished by the different parts of the country. The following is account of the receipts of 11 Provincial Treasuries.

an

From 1785 to 1789, there was received in the Caxas Reales of

Guanaxuato

Mares of Silver..

San Luis Potosi (Catorce, Charcas, San Luis

2,469,000

1,515,000

Zacatecas (Zacatecas, Fresnillo, Sierra de Pinos) 1,205,000

Mexico (Tasco, Zacualpa, Zultepeque)

Durango (Chihuahua, Parral, Guarisamey,

Cosiguiriachi)>

1,055,000

922,000

Rosario (Rosario, Cosala, Copala, Alamos)

668,000

Sum for five years, 9,730,000

That part of the Mexican mountains which at present contains the greatest quantity of silver, is contained between the parallels of

21 and 241 degrees. The celebrated mines of Guanaxuato are only distant in a straight line from those of San Luis Potosi 30 leagues: from San Luis Potosi to Zacatecas the distance is 34 leagues; from Zacatecas to Catorce 31, and from Catorce to Durango 74 leagues. It is remarkable enough that this metallick wealth of Mexico and Peru, should be placed at an almost equal distance in the two hemispheres from the equator.

In the vast extent which separates the mines of Potosi and la Paz from those of Mexico, there are no others, which throw into circulation a great mass of the precious metals, but Pasco and Chota. Advancing from the Cerro de Gualgayoc northwards, we find only the gold washed down at Choco, and in the province of Antioquia, and the recently discovered silver veins of Vega de Supia. It is the same with the Cordillera of the Andes, as with all the mountains of Europe, in which metals are very unequally distributed. The province of Quito, and the Eastern part of the kingdom of New Granada, from the 3o of South latitude, to the 7 of North latitude; the Isthmus of Panama, and the mountains of Guatimala, contain for a length of 600 leagues, vast extents of ground in which no vein has hitherto been wrought with any degree of success It would not, however, be accurate

to advance that these countries which have in a degree, been convulsed with volcanos are entirely destitute of gold and silver ore. Numerous metalliferous depositories may be concealed by the super-position of strata of basalt, amygdaloid, porphyry with greenstone base, and other rocks comprehended by geologists, under the general name of trappformation.

With respect to the Mexican mines in particular, they may be considered as forming eight groups (Erz-refiere) which are almost all placed either on the ridge or on the Western slope of the Cordillera of Anahuac. The first of these groups is the most considerable in produce; it includes the contiguous districts of Guanaxuato, San Luis Potosi, Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo, and Sombrerete. The mines situated to the West of the town of Durango, as well as those of the province of Cinaloa, belong to the second; for the mines of Guarisamey, Copala, Cosala, and Rosario are near enough to one another to be classed under the same geological division. The third group, the most northern of New Spain, is that of Parral, which comprehends the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the 27° to the 29° of latitude. To the northnorth-east of Mexico, the Real del Monte or

Pachuca, and those of Zimapan, or the Doctor, may be stiled the fourth and fifth groups. Bolaños (in the Intendancy of Guadalaxara) Tasco, and Oaxaca are the central points of the sixth, seventh, and eighth groupes of mines of New Spain. This general view is sufficient to prove that this kingdom, like the antient Continent, contains vast extents of country, apparently almost totally destitute of metalliferous veins. No considerable operation has been hitherto carried on in the Intendancies of Puebla and Vera Cruz, or in the plains of secondary formation, situated on the left bank. of the Rio del Norte, or in New Mexico.

*

The following table indicates not the relative wealth, or unequal distribution of the metals considered in a geographical point of view, but the quantity of money which in the present state of the mines, is extracted from the different parts of the kingdom of New Spain. We have classed the mines according to the order already laid down, indicating the name of the chief place which is the central point of the group, and the surface of the country in which the different works are to be found. Several groupes are naturally divided into districts which form so many subdivisions or particular systems.