Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/191

Rh will still hold good in the main, and I refer the reader to it. I was told, that the mine owners—as is somewhat customary in all countries and all ages—imposed upon him in many particulars—and that the figures which he gave, are not to be trusted; but for reasons, which can only be guessed, I find that it is still impossible to obtain any more exact data concerning the yield of particular mines, even at this day. The records are usually imperfect at best, and there is a natural desire not to allow the public a full insight into the workings and value of particular mines. If a mine is paying well, it is always popularly supposed that it is really paying much better than reported; and if not paying at all, it is probably for sale, and the best possible showing is made.

In 1852, the annual yield of the mines of this district was estimated at nine million dollars, of which one-tenth was gold and the remainder silver. It is now only a little more than four million dollars; but with peace, and a judicious investment of capital, it could be doubled, or even trebled, very speedily. The population meantime has fallen off probably fifty per cent, and the city now contains only forty-five or fifty thousand people at the outside estimate.

General Florencio Antillon, Governor of Guanajuato, to whom I am indebted for many courtesies, furnished me with some interesting statistics. From them I learned that the present population of the state is seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty-eight. This is, in proportion to its size, the most densely populated state of the Republic. There are six hundred prisoners in the state-prison, at Salamanca, or one hundred and fifty less than in the