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132 From this time the district remained under the rule of the ayuntamiento and subdelegados, subject to the audiencia of Mexico, until 1786, when the intendencias were established, of which Guanajuato became one of the principal. In the mean time the town had been raised in 1741 to the dignity of city, an appropriate coat of arms being granted it. At the opening of the nineteenth century, the progress made by Guanajuato and its prosperity were almost unprecedented.

The reader will be able to form some idea of the wealth and activity of the district at the time when the revolution broke out from the fact that in the year 1800 the mines, including those worked and those exhausted, numbered 1,816, employing 116 mills, 1,898 arrastras, and 366 establishments for the elaboration of the metal. There were crushed daily 11,500 quintales of ore, and 9,000 operatives employed. At this time the population of the city, including those occupied in the mines, was 66,000. Nor were the agricultural industries of the province, which embraced about 1,750 square leagues, less thriving; the numerous populous towns were surrounded by rich pastures and lands covered with maize and other grain. But now, like a flail of destruction, war falls on the unhappy city, and at its conclusion the population has diminished to six thousand souls, the unfrequented streets are