MEXICO. the local disadvantages which I have enumerated, these settlers have remained. But the mines of Catorce possessed most of 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 dis- tricts of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. The metalliferous dust of the famous mine of " Zavala," which produced four millions of dollars in two years, was eagerly brought up, at the mouth of the mine, by Rescata- dores, (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 Ziiniga,) 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 propor- tion of which was left to pious institutions. The mine of La Luz, denounced in 1804, and still in full work, has given to its present proprietor, the Licenciado Gordoa, the estate of Mai Passo, near Zacatecas, (for which he paid 700,000 dol- lars,) and a million of dollars capital : the best ores, during this time, have sold, according to the registers of the mine, at 340 and 380 dollars per carga, (of 300 lbs.) The ores of a particular level of the mine of La Purisima, which belongs to the family of the Obregons, {el ojo del cielo,) sold for 600, 400, and 380 dollars per carga; at which price they were bought as late as 1817-*
- The necessity of a class of middlemen, or Rescatadores, so often
mentioned in this Book, was nowhere more strongly exemplified than at Catorce ; where almost all the first discoverers were mere adventurers, and consequently unable to establish the necessary works for reducing the ores of their mines. This was done by small capitalists, most of whose establishments are still kept up by the descendants of the fami- lies, although the speculation is not now by any means what it was.
