Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/395

Rh be supplied from a spring at a considerable distance, there is no reason to suppose that these expectations will be disappointed.

The New York Company cannot yet be said to exist, none of its agents having reached Mexico during my residence in that country. Of the four mines, the contracts for which have been assigned to it by Mr. Wilcox, the American Consul General, but little is known, and that little is by no means of a favourable character. The importance of San Juan de las Quebradillas, is inferred from the fact, that, fifty years ago, when the upper levels fell in, one hundred and fifty men were buried in the ruins; and the Mina de Aguas is, in like manner, supposed to be valuable, because 200,000 dollars have been recently expended, by the Tribunal de Mineria, in a fruitless attempt to drain it.

The Germans hold at Temascaltepec, in the Real de Arriba, or upper town, the mines called Del Rincon, which were ceded to them by the same Revilla from whom they purchased the Arevalo mine at Chico.

These mines are ten in number, or rather, there are ten shafts upon the same Vein, drained by one adit, driven at the depth of 120 varas, and upwards of 2,000 varas in length. Their former produce is known to have been considerable, but the works below the adit are full of water, and the