Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/458

440 of the proprietors amounted, in several successive years, to one million and a half of dollars. From 1788 to 1810, the produce averaged 1,383,195 dollars, and the profits 527,701 dollars, as may be seen by a reference to the Tables annexed to the Third Section of the Fourth Book. A town of 7,000 inhabitants was formed in the vicinity of the mine, in which 3,100 individuals found daily employment, under the immediate inspection of an Administrador, to whom the proprietors paid a salary of 12,000 dollars, (2,500l.) conceiving, very properly, that the value of the situation was the best security for the good conduct of him by whom it was held.

A number of different "Pertinencias" are united at Vălĕnciānă, the works in the interior occupying nearly half an English mile in extent. In order to give access to the different levels, various shafts have been sunk, the first of which, called the Tiro Viejo de San Antonio, is said to have cost 396,000 dollars. Through this the first "Bonanza" was raised. The Tiro de Burgos, and the Boca de San Ramon, were next purchased and incorporated with the great mine, (they cost 82,000 dollars;) and the Hexagon shaft of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was afterwards sunk at an expence of 700,000 dollars. All these being deemed insufficient, the great Octagon shaft, called El Tiro General, was begun in 1801, and carried on until the commencement of the Revolution, when it had cost nearly one million of dollars, and attained the depth of six hundred and