Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/619

Rh broken up, and even the towns themselves preserved with difficulty.

For this purpose an association was formed, of which Colonel Bourne is a member, and in its name a number of important mines were "denounced" in the vicinity of Oposura, which was selected, as a central spot, for the principal establishment. Of these districts a very detailed account is given in Colonel Bourne's Journal. The most noted are Cerro Gordo, (South-east of Babiacora,) and the mines of Cobriza, San Antonio, and Dolores, (within a little distance of the same place; the mines of San Juan Bautista de Sonora, (situated upon a mountain eight leagues to the North-west of Oposura, which is crossed in different directions by fourteen veins, all distinctly pronounced,) and those of San Pedro Nacosari, and Churinibabi, (to the North and North-north-west of Oposura).

In all these districts the depth of the mines is inconsiderable, their former riches acknowledged, and the causes by which their working was interrupted, known. The advances necessary in order to bring them into activity are small, for in fact it is more remittances of quicksilver and mining stores, (which must be sent round Cape Horn to Guaymas,) than money, that is requisite. No unreasonable expectations are entertained by the Mexican proprietors, and no onerous conditions proposed: while their respectability and influence in the country are the best possible guarantee to the