Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/363

Rh Rosario, and the coast streams of Mazatlan, Piastla, Elota and Tavala. There are besides these the Culiacan or Sacuda, Imaya, Mocorito, Ocroni, del Fuerte and Mayo.

The Indians belong to various tribes. The Coras, Nayarites, and Hueicolhues are found in the south; north of these dwell the Sinaloas, Cochitas and Tubares; and still further north, on the streams of the Ocroni, Ahomé, del Fuerte and Mayo, we find some tribes of Guásares, Ahomes and Ocronis. The Mayos inhabit chiefly the regions west and north-west of the town of Alamos.

The white inhabitants of this State are chiefly descendants of emigrants from Biscay and Catalonia in Spain.

Sinaloa is regarded as a productive State, and yields good crops of grain in the portions which are easily irrigated. Wheat, Indian corn and barley, together with some cotton, sugar and tobacco, are cultivated successfully; whilst all sorts of fruits and vegetables are found in abundance.

The principal towns are Mazatlan, a port with anchorage on the west coast, which is much visited by European and American vessels, and has been the seat of a very large smuggling trade in which the wares of India and of northern nations were exchanged for the precious metals of Mexico, her grain and skins.

Asilos del Rosario and the Villa de San Sebastian lie in the department of San Sebastian. San Ignacio de Piastla is the capital of a canton. Culiacan lies in the department of Culiacan. Sinaloa or Villa de San Felipe y Santiago de Sinaloa, the Villa del Fuerte or Montesclaros, and Alamos, are the other towns of note in this State.

Sinaloa is rich in metallic deposits of base and precious metals, the chief of which are found at Asilos de Rosario, Cosala, Copala, Alamos, and San José de los Mulatos.

Sonora bounds eastwardly on Chihuahua and New Mexico; southwardly on Sinaloa; and westwardly on the Gulf of California for 238 leagues between the mouths of the Mayo and the Colorado. Its northern boundary is now the line which divides the Republic of Mexico from the Californian possessions of the United States.

The western and southern portions of Sonora are generally flat. In the south, between the rivers Mayo and Yaqui and the Presidio of Buena Vista, there is a fruitful region, whose productiveness is