dral, however, aspires to the former title." Such is the aspect of a city which is the focus of a mineral region surrounded by more than one hundred mines, which are wrought by seventy-five thousand laborers.
In spite of all the natural difficulties and impediments for fine architecture, Guanajuato contains some fine edifices, especially among the private residences of the wealthy miners, such as the families of Otero, Valenciana, Rhul and Perez Galvez. The church of the Jesuits was built by the Marquis Rayas. Besides the cathedral, the town contains two chapels, three monasteries, five convents, a college, a Bethlehemite hospital, a theatre, a barrack, a mint, an university, and a gymnasium.
The Villa de Leon, is a market town west north-west from Guanajuato, in 21° 6' 38" north latitude, and 103° 39' west longitude, 6,004 feet above the sea, in the productive plain of Leon.
San Felipé is another market town, 32 leagues north of Guanajuato, on the road to San Luis Potosi, 6,906 feet above the sea. Ten leagues north-east from San Felipé is the valuable estate of Jaral, the property of the Marquis del Jaral, the wealthiest and largest land owner in Mexico. His stock of cattle, comprising horses, mules, horned-cattle, sheep and goats amounts to nearly three million head! [1] Thirty thousand sheep alone, and as many goats, are annually slaughtered on this estate for the markets of Guanajuato and Mexico, where the sheep sell for from two and a half to three dollars a piece, and the goats from seventy-five cents to one dollar each!
Celaya is a city, and next in importance to Guanajuato in the State. It lies in 20° 38' north latitude, and 102° 52' west longitude, near the boundary of Querétaro, 6,020 feet above the sea, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants.
Salamanca is a market town in the Bajio, nine leagues west from Celaya, and is the chief place of a region possessing twenty-nine haciendas, or plantation estates, and sixty-nine valuable farms. Its population is estimated at 15,000. Irapuato, lies about six leagues north-west from Salamanca, and contains perhaps an equal number of inhabitants.
San Miguel Allende, formerly San Miguel el Grande, is the capital of the department of that name, lies directly north of Celaya, on the river de la Laja, where it cuts the division between the two departments. Dolores Hidalgo is on the same stream, north-west of the last town, and is remarkable in the annals of the country as the
- ↑ Mühlenpfordt.
