Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/571

Rh to the principal habitation to take chocolate, and were also in other respects extremely well treated in their way, by its aged occupiers. On the 8th we arrived at La Perdida, whence we obtained a full view of the Catorce mountains, saw all our road distinctly before us, and even descried "El Potrero," our destination with the carriages. We collected in the evening" several heaps of palm-wood and made bonfires, which were seen by the people at El Potrero. On the following day we reached Vanegas, three leagues from La Perdida, where we offered up our thanks for having met with fresh water. Vanegas is noted for its mineral-waters, or hot-baths: the road from Saltillo here is south, or very nearly so: there is an Hacienda de Plata here belonging to Don Matias and Don Francisco Aguirre. On the 10th, we went three leagues and stopped at Pachon, the road ascending all the way: we started early on the next morning, (the 11th,) and had not proceded far on our journey when we were met by a great number of men, women, and children, who had come out to meet us, and to escort us to El Potrero, where we arrived about twelve o'clock, and found thousands of people waiting to see us. The Obregons had made interest with the administradors of the different mines to dispatch all their men to the Potrero, so that immediately on our arrival the castings might be conveyed to Concepcion, the mine where the engine was to be erected, at least two miles up a very steep mountain. All our baggage and small boxes of machinery were taken up that day, and we arrived at our future residence about five o'clock in the afternoon, having been exactly twelve months between London and Catorce. We left London on the 11th of November, 1821, and arrived at Catorce on the same day, 1822.

On the 12th we visited the mine, and found the shaft of a most tremendous size, the timber having become rotten and fallen away into the shaft, which, to within an hundred yards of the surface, was full of rubbish, &c. Every thing was in ruins; nothing but the walls standing of several old houses, which gave one the idea of an ancient castle that had been besieged a hundred years before: there was not the smallest stick of timber in all the mine.