Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/628

608. It derives its importance entirely from its mines, one of which, called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, is very celebrated. It belongs to Don Francisco Iriarte, a relation of the President's, who refused an offer of one million of dollars, made in 1825, by an association of Foreigners, on condition that he should allow them to work his mine for a term of three years. Guădălūpĕ is free from water, and situated at a considerable elevation above the plain; it contains a vein of gold of considerable breadth, and its produce might be increased to ten times its present amount; but the proprietor, a man of very peculiar habits, often refuses to work the mine for months together, and when compelled to employ labourers upon it, in order to prevent the loss of his title by exposing the mine to a denunciation from some other quarter, never allows more than four arrobas of gold (100lbs weight) to be raised in the week.

The idea of a man possessed of boundless wealth, but refusing to make any use of the treasures within his reach, will seem incredible in Europe; but Iriarte really does not know the value of money. With at least a million of dollars in gold and silver in his house, he lives in a habitation, the furniture of which is composed of buffaloe skins, with wooden tables, and chairs of so massive a construction that it requires two or three men to lift them from one part of the room to the other. His sons, whom he never permits to leave the town, are forced to attend to a little retail shop in Cŏsălā; and his daughter, who