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146 chance of acquiring that sudden wealth, which sometimes falls to a Barretero's lot. In addition to these accidental advantages, the ordinary wages of a miner are high; and although the money which passes through his hands is usually as ill spent, as it is rapidly acquired, still, to ensure the means of indulging in a weekly excess, (the necessity of which seems to be an article of the mining creed in every country,) there are few Indians who will not enter gladly upon a week of labour.

It is not, therefore, to be apprehended, that the late change of institutions in Mexico will occasion any difficulty in finding hands to carry on mining operations there, to whatever extent they may be pushed by the Companies, although there have been great complaints upon the subject, hitherto, in many districts, from the total dispersion of the population during the Civil War. Things revert, however, gradually, to their former state, and that without the necessity of any extraordinary exertion. At Tlălpŭjāhuă, for instance, upon the first arrival of the Company, (in 1825,) one hundred and fifty labourers were collected with difficulty. In 1827, from twelve to sixteen hundred persons were in daily employment in the mines, besides from six to seven hundred more, who were occupied in cutting wood, and making charcoal in the neighbouring mountains. At Guanajuato, within one year after the establishment of the Anglo-Mexican and United Mexican Companies, the population increased from thirty to