Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/447

Rh itself, being situated in one of those hollows in which, as I have already observed, Nature seems to have deposited the great mineral riches of the district, and not having been worked hitherto to any thing like the same extent as the other mines upon the Vĕtă Mădrĕ, is considered by the natives as one of great promise. The outlay upon it, (including the purchase money of ten Barras,) was, in September 1826, 255,201 dollars.

From Sirena we proceeded to the Hacienda of Păstītă, an amalgamation work entirely fitted up by the Company, with twenty-eight arrastres, and a water-wheel for the stampers, which is expected to work six months in the twelve: 42,860 dollars have been expended upon this Hacienda by the Company, but it is now held at a nominal rent of five hundred dollars per annum, until the whole outlay be repaid, so that they have, in fact, the use of it for eighty years rent free.

The Hacienda of San Agŭstīn, which we next visited, is the property of the Association, and has cost altogether 116,365 dollars. The purchase money was trifling, but a great additional outlay was occasioned by the preparations for the introduction of the Cornish system of washing and reducing ores,—the new smelting establishment, which proved so complete a failure under the superintendence of Mr. Lucas, and the Freiberg revolving-barrels, which it has not yet been found possible to apply to the immense mass of ores that are subjected to the