it is from three to four leagues in breadth, and in others not more than half a league. In this small space there are, besides Oposura, the towns of Tepache (population 1,000); Icori, 2,500; Cumpas, 1,000. The villages, or ranchos, of Moreno, 200; Barispe, 4,000; Jamaica, 200; Ojo de la Agua, 400; La Noria, 50; Tembabi, 300; and other settlements, 100. The population, including the town of Oposura, is not less than 10,600 souls, and the valley produces annually 20,000 fanegas of grain; 180,000lbs. of brown sugar in cakes; 105,000lbs. of soap; 2,000 horses; 350 mules; 150 asses, and 3,500 cows and bulls, besides sheep, &c.; 4,000 blankets; 900 dressed bulls' hides, with a good deal of cotton and tobacco.
To the north, is the mining district of Nacosari, sixteen leagues from Oposura, and fourteen eastward from Arispe, which is a town of 3,000 inhabitants, now the residence of the Commandant-General of the Estate, Colonel Jose Joaquin Calvo, and his staff. The entrance from the plain of Nacosari is up a very narrow glen, two leagues in length, down which there flows a tolerable stream of water, which is lost in the sand, about one mile from the entrance; but I was informed that, in the rainy season, it is a stream as far as Ojo de la Agua, the source of the river Oposura. Just before you arrive at Nacosari, the glen expands into a beautiful vale, planted over with fig-trees, pomegranates, peaches, and other fruits, with a variety of ornamental shrubs and plants, which were once arranged with order and taste, but now form a confused thicket. The remains of numerous canals are visible, through which water has been conveyed over every part of this vale; and the old men say their fathers used to speak of this spot (once the residence of a community of Jesuits), as being the most delightful place in all Mexico: it is certainly the most singular situation that I ever saw. At the upper end are the remains of a church, with mud walls, and several dwellings without roofs. There are the ruins, likewise, of some reduction works, but so dilapidated that it is impossible to judge of their former nature or extent, as they have been abandoned upwards of sixty years, and entirely destroyed by the Apaches. The mountains, which rise almost perpendicularly from this spot, are full of strata, of
