Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/111

Rh Quebradilla, and San Acasio at Zacatecas, and from the Cañada which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The beautiful estates of the Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the revenues of the mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce; as was also the estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of of La Luz. The Zambranos,—discoverers of Guarisamey,—owned many of the finest properties in Durango; while Batopillas gave the Bustamantes the opportunity to purchase a title and to enjoy an immense unencumbered income.

Nevertheless, some of the large fortunes of Mexico were made either by trade or the possession of vast agricultural and cattle estates in sections of the country where there were either no mines, or where mining was unprofitable. The Agredas were enriched by commerce, while the descendants of Cortéz who received a royal grant of the valley of Oajaca, together with some Spanish merchants in Jalapa and Vera Cruz, derived the chief part of their fortunes from landed estates, cultivated carefully during the period when the Indians were under better agricultural subjection than at present.

Thus the mines, and the mining districts, by aggregating a large laboring population, in a country in which there were, until recently, but few manufactures, and in which the main body of the people engaged either in trades or in tending cattle, became the centre of some of the most active agricultural districts. "The most fertile portions of the table land are the Baxio, which is immediately contiguous to Guanajuato, and comprises a portion of Valladolid, Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato. The valley of Toluca, and the southern part of the state of Valladolid, both supply the capital and the mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El Oro, Temascaltepec and Angangeo;—the plains of Pachuca and Appam, which extend on either side to the foot of the mountains upon which the mines of Real del Monte Chico are situated;—Itzmiquilpan, which owes its existence to Zimapan;—Aguas Calientes, by which the great mining town of Zacatecas is supplied;—a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and Fresnillo;—the valley of Jarral and the plains about San Luis Potosi, which town again derives its name from the mines of the Cerro de San Pedro, about four leagues from the gates, the supposed superiority of which to the celebrated mines of Potosi in Peru gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther north we find the district of Matehuala, now a thriving town with more