Luis Potosi were founded toward the close of the sixteenth and during the early part of the seventeenth century, and there is nothing that requires record concerning their progress. The capital of the same name is situated on the eastern declivity of the great plateau of Anáhuac, in a fertile and extensive valley, bounded on the west by the mountains of San Luis. The oldest records of the town council date back to 1612, the title of city being awarded by the king in 1656.[1] The population in 1604 consisted of eight hundred Spaniards and some three thousand Indians; and about the middle of the eighteenth century, Villa-Señor states it at sixteen hundred families. Most of the natives were distributed among the mines of San Pedro and the neighboring haciendas, and from this time forward the population seems to have increased rapidly.[2]
San Pedro, Charcas, Villa del Valle, Guadalcázar, Panuco, and other towns were also in a flourishing condition.[3] The mining town of Catorce, so named on account of the murder of fourteen soldiers by savages in ancient times, appears to have been founded in 1772,[4] though some place the date as early as 1738.
- ↑ Iturribarria, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, vii. 300. According to Arlegui, 57, in 1666.
- ↑ Statistics concerning the population of San Luis Potosi run widely apart. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 57, gives for 1793 in the city 8,571, and in the province 242,280; for 1803, 12,000 and 334,900 respectively. Castillo, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 3d ep.v. 497, gives 22,000 for the city in 1787—an absurd statement. Taladez, Not., in Id., 58, 61, in 1794 for the province 168,002. Not. de Esp., in Id., ii. 19, for 1805, 186,503; so Trib. Consul, in Id., 16; see for population at different periods Id., Id., ix. 272; for 1808. Cancelada, Ruina, 73-5, gives 311,503. Navarro, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2d ep. i. 291, gives for the intendencia of San Luis in 1810: 2,357 square leagues, with 22,609 Spaniards, 88,949 Indians, 62,007 of mixed race, a total of 173,651. There were 10 partidos, 23 curacies, and 19 missions; one city, 2 villas, 49 pueblos, 15 reales de minas, 124 haciendas, 431 ranchos, and 18 cattle ranchos. Properly there were 14 partidos, 10 under the viceroy, and four under the commander-general of the provincias orientales. See also Hassel, Handhuch, Mex. and Guat., 224-9.
- ↑ In 1740 San Pedro had 100 families of Spaniards, mestizos, and mulattoes, with some 2,000 Indians in the vicinity; Charcas, 40 or 50, and Villa del Valle 240 Spanish families. Villa-Señor, Theatro, i. 54-9.
- ↑ See Campo, Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2d ep. iv. 374. Five thousand inhabitants are given for the year 1776, in Ward's Mex., ii. 132-3, which seems exaggerated. According to Hassel, Handbuch, the mines were discovered in 1770.
