Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/413

 MEXICO. lars. It was called, in its rough state, Plata Pina, or Plata Pasta ; and, incredible as it may appear that the value of the precious metals thus brought annually into circulation should have amounted to five millions and a half of dollars, there is no other mode, at present, of accounting for by far the largest proportion of the ten millions of dollars, which, unquestion- ably, were coined annually, in the different Mints of Mexico, during the Civil War. One million, indeed, may be deducted from the Coinage of each of the four or five first years of the Revolution, for the plate, which was brought into circulation during that period. But then, at least, as much must be added, upon the whole fifteen, for unregistered silver sent out of the country in bars. A very large proportion of the great Bonanza* of the Mar- quis of Biistamante at Batopilas, comes under this descrip- tion, nearly the whole of his enormous wealth having been sent direct to Giiaymas, and from thence to Guyaquil and Panama, where it was shipped for Spain by the Pacific, or sent across the Isthmus to Portobello. A similar exportation took place from all the Districts to the North of San Luis PotosT, and particularly from Catorce, where, from the facility of the communication with the coast, the Old Spaniards, by whom most of the mines were worked in 1810, were in the habit of shipping off all the bars that contained a ley de oro, and no inconsiderable proportion of the pure silver, to the Peninsula, without converting them into dollars. I should, therefore, be inclined to estimate the total pro- Mine in such a state as to cover all the expenses of working it, and to leave a considerable annual profit to the proprietor. It implies no particular sum, for you may have bonanza of a million, or a bonanza of 20,000 dollars ; but it always signifies that things are going on satisfactorily ; — in short, that you are in the Trades, with studding sails set below and aloft, and every prospect of a prosperous voyage.
 * Bonanza is a sea term, used by the Mexican Miners to designate a