Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/170

156 wealth, which, in the North, appears to be really inexhaustible. To the European manufacturer, it is a matter of indifference whether the silver, which is transmitted to him in return for the produce of his labour, proceeds from Guănăjūātŏ, or Dŭrāngŏ, from the centre of the Table-land, or the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The capability of the country to produce it in sufficient quantities to ensure a constant market, and an equally constant return, is the only point which it can be of importance for him to ascertain; and of this, from the moment that a sufficient capital is invested in mining operations, I have no scruple in stating that there can be no doubt.

Mining in Mexico has, hitherto, been confined to a comparatively narrow circle: the immense mass of silver which the country has yielded since the Conquest, (Humboldt calculates it at 1,767,952,000 dollars, in 1803,) has proceeded from a few Central spots, in which the capital and activity of the first speculators found ample employment: yet, if we examine those spots, we shall find that three centuries of constant productiveness, have not been sufficient to exhaust the principal mines originally worked in each, while by far the largest proportion of the great Veins remains unexplored. This is the case at Guănăjūātŏ, with the mines of Cātă and Rāyăs, and at Zăcătēcăs, with those of San Ăcāsĭŏ and San Bĕrnăbē,—all of which now belong to the United Mexican Association. Valenciana is a more