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138 sort of colony there failed; and, in a few years, the very name of Arizona was forgotten.

I am far from supposing that the whole of the facts recorded in this Decree can be taken as correct, although the authenticity of the Decree itself is unquestionable. But what one cannot adopt without confirmation, ought not to be rejected without inquiry; and I see enough, at least, in these Records of Arizona, to warrant the supposition, (confirmed as it is by the facts and appearances which I have mentioned in the preceding pages,) that the hitherto unexplored regions in the North of Mexico, contain mineral treasures which, as discoveries proceed, are likely to make the future produce of the country infinitely exceed the amount that has been, hitherto, drawn from the (comparatively) poorer districts of the South.

In how far these discoveries must be influenced by the progress of population, and in what degree the discoveries themselves may be expected to influence that progress, remains as a subject of inquiry for the fourth and last Section of this Book; in which I shall endeavour to point out the connexion between the Mines, and the Agriculture, and Commerce of Mexico, as the best mode of illustrating the effect likely to be produced by their prosperity upon a population, the general interests of which they so effectually promote.