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Rh days; indeed, it appears that, from his munificence, he almost bought the Viceroy himself; for on the great Besamanos days in Mexico, he used to appear at court with a pocket-handkerchief full of gold toys, and tell Branciforte, (at that time Viceroy,) as he passed him almost without a salute, and proceeded to the private apartments of the Vicequeen, "I don't come to see your Excellency; Soy un barbaro, y no se nada de Cortes, (I am a barbarian, and know nothing of courts,) vengo à ver a mi niña, (I come to see my little girl,)" the Viceroy's daughter, on whom the contents of the handkerchief were of course bestowed.

Most of those who made fortunes at Catorce, were men like Zuñiga, of little education, and no resources. Parodi, Don Pedro Medellin, (the proprietor of the mine of Dolores,) and twenty others, whose names it would be useless to enumerate, were all "barbaros;" and the extravagance of their expenditure was such as might have been expected from the facility with which their wealth was acquired. Medellin, upon one occasion, spent six-and-thirty thousand dollars upon an entertainment given in honour of a godchild at Saltillo; and at the time when the Partido amounted to one-third of the ores raised, common miners have been known to lose two and three thousand dollars in a morning at a cock-fight. Fortunately, there were some exceptions, and though the descendants of the more prudent adventurers, who invested in land a part of their profits, have