Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/587

Rh 130,000 pesos, which was taken from him by Gil Gonzales in an affray between the Spaniards for supremacy in that country.

Diego Lopez de Salcedo, governor of Honduras, journeyed from Trujillo near Cape Honduras, to the city of Leon in Nicaragua. He reported that in the valley of Olancho, about twenty-five leagues south of Trujillo, were mines so rich that with proper tools gold twenty-two carats fine to the value of 200,000 Castellanos might be taken out in two months.

In the year 1528 Martin Estete and Gabriel de Rojas were sent from New Leon by Pedrarias to the River San Juan ini order to ascertain the character of the stream which drains the lake of Nicaragua and Managua. Taking a circuitous route for the purpose of examining the country they reached the ocean at Cape Gracias a Dios, and such was the richness of the country in that vicinity that they founded a colony at that point, and Gabriel de Rojas remained to work the mines. About this time a large quantity of gold was taken from the River Guayape in the valley of Olancho. The first silver mines of which I find mention, were opened in a beautiful valley of Honduras, at a place called New Valladolid, about thirty leagues from Trujillo.

The colonists at Trujillo up to June 1533, took from the mines in their vicinity 3,532 pesos. They reported many mines rich in gold and other metals in the neighborhood, but such was the continued hostility of the natives that they were obliged to abandon not only their mining camps but the larger settlements. But after the pacification of the country by Pedro de Alvarado the yield of the mines during six months of 1535 was 60,000 pesos, and as early as 1538 the reputation of Honduras as a rich mining country was established.