Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/610

590 since its discovery in the middle of the sixteenth century, had always offered a vast field to enterprising persons. That it was not unfounded becomes evident from the estimated production for one hundred and eighty years, till 1732, which is placed at $832,232,880. After this period the yield increased, and in 1808 Zacatecas furnished nearly as much silver as Guanajuato. The principal vein, the Veta Grande, gave in eighteen years, from 1790 till 1808, 1,293,463 marks of silver, valued at $11,317,792. The exploitation of mines in the district of Sombrerete was for a time equally successful, the celebrated Veta Negra there having produced within six months more than 700,000 marks of silver, and about four million pesos of net profits. To this period probably belongs the story that a rich miner of Zacatecas on the occasion of his daughter's wedding had the streets paved with bricks of silver, from his house to the church.

In the northern provinces of Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua, though most of them were supposed to be equal if not superior in mineral wealth to the other districts, mining was conducted on a smaller scale. The reasons must be attributed to