Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/594

574 amount of the silver drawn from the Sierra Madre by Zambrano during the twenty-five years that he continued his labours, nothing certain is known; but Mr. Glennie, from whose notes I have borrowed the whole of the details given above, states that he himself saw in the books of the Custom-house of Durango, eleven millions of dollars registered as the sum paid by Zambrano as the King's Fifth; and this fact was confirmed to me by the Governor, who examined the registers himself in order to ascertain it. It is likewise corroborated by the number of mines opened at Gūārĭsămĕy and the surrounding districts in an incredibly short space of time; by the peculiar richness of their ores; and by the immense weath of Zămbrānŏ, (diminished as his profits must have been by the expences of working,) of which so many splendid monuments remain. Nor can one witness without regret the decline of a district capable of communicating so beneficial an impulse to the country around; but which, with its treasures still unexplored, is now almost entirely abandoned.

A little to the north of Gūārĭsămĕy, is the mineral called Bācīs, which was not visited by Mr. Glennie, on account of the total destruction of the roads by the rains: the same cause prevented him from reaching Tămăsulă, Cănēlăs, and Sĭānŏrĭ; all valuable districts; the two last of which are situated on the extreme North-western boundary of the State of Durango. Bacis has been long given up, on account of the difficulty of draining the mines without