Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/578

558 population took refuge in the vicinity of the river Gila, where it still retains possession of a country, which, during three centuries, has remained almost entirely unexplored. Of the lands formerly tenanted by them, distinguished both by their mineral riches, and by the rapidly increasing trade with China and the East Indies, of which the ports of Măzătlān and Guaymas are the seat, I shall endeavour to give some description under their new territorial division, referring my readers for many highly interesting details to a journal with which I have been furnished by a gentleman who has very recently returned from the North of Mexico, and who is almost the only foreigner, with the exception of Lieutenant Hardy, who has hitherto visited the interior of Upper Sonora, or at least resided a sufficient time there to acquire a knowledge of the resources and peculiarities of the country.

I shall commence with Durango, the most southern of the Internal Provinces, and the only one to which my own observations extended, much as I should have rejoiced to give them a wider range.

The capital of the State of Durango, is situated sixty-five leagues to the north-west of Zacatecas. The population of the town is 22,000; that of the State 175,000. Both the city of Victoria and most of the other towns of Durango, (Tămăsulă, Sĭānŏrĭ, Măpĭmī, San Dimas, Canelas, Cuencame, &c.) take their origin from the mines. Before the discovery of those of Gūārĭsămĕy, Victoria was a mere village