Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/79

Rh of residents are very dishonest and barbarous. Frisnillo and Sombrereto are also famed for their valuable silver-mines.

Durango is the principal city in the region of the north: it boasts of a mint is the seat of a bishopric and has a splendid cathedral. The Inquisition had formerly a vast and terrible establishment in this city, the buildings of which frown upon the landscape in all their original sternness. The Alameda—situated beside the "Plaza de los Toros," or bull-ring—is one of the loveliest in Mexico; it is ornamented with plentiful flowers and trees and cooled by a brilliant fountain. Durango is supposed to occupy almost as much ground as the city of Mexico itself; though it contains scarcely more than 20,000 inhabitants. Jesus-Maria and Chihuahua are also considerable localities in the mining districts of northern Mexico.

Santa Fé is the capital of New Mexico distant only fifteen miles from the great Rio del Norte. The town is poorly arranged small, and confined; and its buildings, with the exceptions of the palacio, the custom-house, and the barracks, are even unusually humble and inconvenient. The population of