Three

above the level of the sea of from 5,900 to 9,840 feet. mines alone have produced more than half as much again as all the rest put together. These are the mines of Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas. The quantity of silver exported from New Spain to Europe and India per annum is about one million six hundred and fifty thousand pounds weight.

Gold is generally procured by washings. It is found in abundance in the alluvial regions of Sonora, in the sands of Hiaqui, and in Pimeria, where grains of a very large size have been discovered. It is also found in the mines of Oaxaca and elsewhere in veins. The produce of gold in New Spain is stated by M. de Humboldt to amount, in the most favorable years, to one million of dollars, and the produce of the silver to twenty-two millions of dollars. Mr Robinson gives the annual coinage of gold at 14,000,000, and of silver at 50,000,000 of dollars. Mr Wilcocks makes the annual amount of gold and silver $28,000,000; and we have heard it stated in a private quarter, which we think entitled to confidence, to amount to $32,000,000 in the best years. According to the letter of Mr Wilcocks, it has been excessively reduced in consequence of the disturbed state of the country, and will this year amount to not more than four millions of dollars.

The richest mine in America, and of consequence in the world, is the Valenciana, one of the mines of Guanaxuato. The principal vein of silver ore, in this mine, is twenty-two feet in breadth; and as it is quite dry, it is wrought at much less expense, than the majority of the American mines. We have thought our readers would be amused with an account of this mine somewhat in detail, in the words of M. de Humboldt. The Valenciana,' says he,* offers an example almost unique of a mine, which for forty years has never yielded its proprietors less than two or three millions of francs (400,000 or 600,000 dollars) annual profit. It appears that the portion of the vein of Guanaxuato, which runs from Tepeyac to the northwest, had been partially wrought to the close of the sixteenth century. Since that period, this whole region had been neglected, and it was not till 1760, that a Spaniard, who had gone very young to America, attacked the vein in one of the points, which had been hitherto thought destitute of silver. M. Obregon, for this was his name, was without fortune; but enjoying a good reputation, he found friends, who, from time

*Tom. II. 528.

to time, advanced him small sums to continue his labors. In 1766, the operations had reached a depth of two hundred sixty feet, and the expenses of working the mine still exceed, by far, its product. Possessing the same passion for mines that others have for gaming, Mr Obregon preferred subjecting himself to any privation, rather than abandon the enterprize. In 1767, he entered into partnership with a small merchant of Rayas, named Otéro, little thinking that, in a few years, he and his friend were to become the richest individuals in Mexico, perhaps in the world. In 1768 the mine began to yield a large amount of metal. As the shafts were wrought lower, they approached the region, already described as the deposit of the immense mineral wealth of Guanaxuato. In 1771 immense masses of sulphuretted silver, mixed with native silver and red silver ore, were derived from this mine. Since this period to 1804, the Valenciana has not ceased to yield annually the enormous sum stated above. There have been years so productive, that the net profit of the two proprietors of the mines has amounted to $1,200,000. M. Obregon, better known as the count de la Valenciana, preserved, in the possession of this immense wealth, that simplicity of manners, and frankness of character, which distinguished him in less prosperous circumstances. When he first attacked the vein, above the ravine San Xavier, the wild goats wandered on the hill, where, ten years after, he saw a village of seven or eight thousand inhabitants. Since the death of the old count, and of his friend Don Pedro Luciano Otéro, the property of the mine has been divided among several families. It exists in twenty-four shares, of which ten belong to the descendants of the count Valenciana, twelve to the family of Otéro, and two to the family of Santana. I knew at Mexico two sons of M. Otéro, minors, of which each had a capital of $1,300,000, exclusive of the annual produce of their share in the mines, which was $80,000 to each. We must be still more surprised at the constancy and equality of the produce of the mine de la Valenciana, when we reflect that the abundance of rich mines has considerably diminished, and that the expenses of working them have advanced in a frightful progression, after the shafts attain a depth of 1640 feet. The sinking and walling up of the three old shafts cost the first count of Valenciana near $1,200,000.' To form an idea of the immense expense of working the mine, New Series, No. 10.

55

it is sufficient to state, that in its present condition it requires annually,

For workmen of various sorts employed in the mine, $680,000 For powder, tallow, wood, copper, steel, and other

requisite supplies,

900,000

$1,580,000

The consumption of powder amounts to $80,000 a year, and that of steel for instruments of mining to $30,000. The number of laborers in the interior of the mine is 1800; and adding 1300 men, women, and children, who are employed in labors directly connected with the mine, the number amounts to 3100. The direction of the mine is entrusted to an administrator, who has $12,000 salary a year, and through whose hands $1,200,000 pass. This administrator, who is under no check whatever, has below him one miner, three sub-miners, and nine master-miners. These officers visit the works daily, carried by men, who have a sort of saddle attached to the back, and are called little horses, cavallitos.'

Such is the most productive of the American mines. M. de Humboldt's chapter contains a number of very curious and instructive researches on every point of interest connected with them, particularly on the whole amount of the precious metals, which have passed from America to Europe and the east, since 1492 up to 1803, and which he estimates from the best data at 5445 millions of dollars. We will only add a fact, perhaps not generally known, that of all the mines in America, the government possesses but one, that of Huancavelica in Peru, which has been long abandoned, and which formerly yielded a large quantity of mercury. The mines are all the property of individuals, who receive from government the concession, as it is called, of a certain extent on a vein or stratum, on the condition of paying a percentage on the produce of the mine. This percentage amounts on an average to 11 per cent. on the silver, and 3 per cent. on the gold. Had the boundary of the United States been established to be the Rio bravo del Norte, as it was claimed to be till the late Florida treaty, our territory would have been brought within a short distance of the capital of Mexico, and would have included some of the richest silver mines, in the government of San Luis Potosi.

We cannot forbear to make an extract from M. de Humboldt's

work, for the sake of showing the progress of refinement in the capital of Mexico. We quote from the translation of Mr Black, the value of which is diminished by the ineffectual attempts of its author to illustrate, confirm, and correct M. de Humboldt's statements, in his own notes.* *

No city of the new continent, without even excepting those of the United States of America, can display such great and solid scientific establishments as the capital of Mexico. I shall content myself here with naming the school of mines, directed by the learned Elhuyar, the botanic garden, and the academy of painting and sculpture. This academy bears the title of Academia de los nobles artes de Mexico. It owes its existence to the patriotism of several Mexican individuals, and to the protection of the minister Galvez. The government assigned it a spacious building, in which there is a much finer and more complete collection of casts, than is to be found in any part of Germany. We are astonished on seeing that the Apollo Belvedere, the group of the Laocoon and still more colossal statues have been conveyed through mountainous roads at least as narrow as those of St Gothard; and we are surprised to find these masterpieces of antiquity collected together under the torrid zone, in table land, higher than the convent of the great St Bernard. The collection of casts brought to Mexico cost the king $40,000. The revenues of the academy of fine arts at Mexico amount to $25,000 a year, toward which the government gives $12,000, the body of the Mexican miners near $5,000, the consulado, or body of merchants in the capital, more than $3000 a year. It is impossible not to perceive the influence of this establishment on the tastes of the nation. This influence is particularly visible in the symmetry of the buildings, in the perfection with which the hewing of stone is conducted, and in the ornaments of the capitals and stucco relievos. What a number of beautiful edifices are to be seen at Mexico, nay even in the provincial towns like Guanaxuato and Queretaro! These monuments, which frequently cost a million or half a million francs, would appear to advantage in the finest streets of Paris, Berlin, and St Petersburg. M. Tolsa, professor of sculpture at Mexico,

* M. de Humboldt having had occasion to make use of the distinction of the race of Caucasus, so familiar to the continental physiologists of the present day, his translator appends the following judicious note to the expression, Who are individuals of the race of Caucasus? The Europeans. So at least we learn from the context, where they are opposed to the Mexican Indians. This involves the theory of the mountains of Asia being the nursery of the old continent. Every one, however, will not so easily be able to understand Europeans, by this denomination. Such attempts to elevate the style, at the expense of perspicuity, can never enough be reprobated! It is with some reason, therefore, that the translator has observed, that he does not suppose his notes to be of any great importance.'

was even able to cast an equestrian statue of Charles IV, a work which, with the exception of the Marcus Aurelius at Rome, surpasses in beauty and purity of style every thing which remains in this way in Europe. Instruction is communicated gratis at the academy of fine arts. It is not confined alone to the drawing of landscapes and figures; they have had the good sense to employ other means for the excitement of national industry. The academy labors successfully to introduce among the artisans a taste for elegance and beautiful forms. Large rooms, well lighted by Argand lamps, contain every evening some hundreds of young people, of whom some draw from relievo or living models, while others copy drawings of furniture, chandeliers, or other ornaments in bronze. In this assemblage (and this is very remarkable in the midst of a country, where the prejudices of the nobility against the casts are so inveterate) rank, color, and race are confounded; we see the Indian and the Mestizo sitting beside the white, and the son of a poor artisan, in emulation with the children of the great lords of the country."

Many other facts produced by M. de Humboldt, prove the progress which has been made in Mexico in those refinements thought peculiar to old countries; but we must haste to close this sketch, with one or two additional statistical statements. We have already stated the annual produce of the mines, before the confused state of things now existing, at $23,000,000 annually. The disorder of the government, and the difficulties attending the importation of mercury for the amalgamation process, have reduced this to $4,000,000 or $5,000,000. Of the amount in value of other natural productions, we have but partial information. M. de Humboldt gives the annual amount of the Mexican sugar at $1,300,000. The amount of all sorts of manufactures is estimated by him at seven or eight millions of dollars. The importations of articles of foreign growth or manufacture, amounted, in 1804, to $20,000,000; and the exportation, exclusive of the produce of the mines, to $6,000,000. The gross revenue amounted to $20,000,000, of which 5,000,000 were from the gold and silver mines, 4,000,000 from the monopoly of tobacco, 3,000,000 impost, 1,300,000 capitation tax of indians, and 800,000 excise on the fermented juice of the agave.

We shall close this article, by a brief narrative of the late revolution in Mexico, taken principally from the letter of Mr Wilcocks to the Secretary of State, which is published among the documents accompanying the president's message. This