Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/328

308 Luis Potosi were founded toward the close of the sixteenth and during the early part of the seventeenth century, and there is nothing that requires record concerning their progress. The capital of the same name is situated on the eastern declivity of the great plateau of Anáhuac, in a fertile and extensive valley, bounded on the west by the mountains of San Luis. The oldest records of the town council date back to 1612, the title of city being awarded by the king in 1656. The population in 1604 consisted of eight hundred Spaniards and some three thousand Indians; and about the middle of the eighteenth century, Villa-Señor states it at sixteen hundred families. Most of the natives were distributed among the mines of San Pedro and the neighboring haciendas, and from this time forward the population seems to have increased rapidly.

San Pedro, Charcas, Villa del Valle, Guadalcázar, Panuco, and other towns were also in a flourishing condition. The mining town of Catorce, so named on account of the murder of fourteen soldiers by savages in ancient times, appears to have been founded in 1772, though some place the date as early as 1738.