Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/246

218 veins of the precious metal may be distinguished even upon the surface, as they wind their course among the red-stone heights and through the broken valleys; and it is supposed that no small quantity of silver lies hidden below the narrow streets of the city: which, at no great distance, seems completely surrounded by metallic hills and barren rocks, studded with shafts and diggings, crushing rooms and grinding-mills, mule-sheds and melting-houses. Were it not for the number of habitations near me, and the sufficiency of signs of human life at hand, it would appear, upon the whole, rather a singular situation in which to spend the night. I passed a number of huts, on my way here before sunset, belonging to some poor Indian charcoal burners: near me, by the side of a projecting rock, is a curious spring of water constantly hot; and last, though not least, far down in the distance, on the outskirts of a little village on the other side of the mountains, is—strange to say— a goodly convent of fat friars! How it can have got there appears unaccountable at first sight; but wherever there is anything either rich, prosperous, or promising, to be found, the holy fathers are not far distant: it must