tion of other Spanish settlements. As a matter of fact, the Spaniards became acquainted with the wealth of this part of the country soon after its discovery. The city of Santa Fé de Guanajuato, the veritable Villa Rica of Mexico, had its birth in 1554, and in or about 1558 the Veta Madre was founded.[1] In the lapse of time that town proved to be the centre of the marvellous deposits on the porphyritic range of the sierra de Santa Rosa, perhaps the richest group of silver mines up to that time discovered, and Guanajuato itself became the most singularly situated of all cities. If the spirit of charity revealed the mines of Espíritu Santo, it might well seem as if the genius of evil had chosen this labyrinth of mountain ravines as its seat. From the extraordinary shapes assumed by the gigantic masses of porphyry in form of ruined fortresses, one might easily imagine this the battle-ground of impalpable intelligences, as though the secret had been wrung from nature at a fearful cost.[2] In any event, they proved the most important of any found during this first period of discovery of mines, and of immense wealth, yielding large revenues to the crown.
The prior discovery of the mines of San Lúcas, Aviño, Sombrerete, Ranchos, Chalchihuites, Nieves, and others should be awarded to Francisco de Ibarra, a nephew of Diego de Ibarra, son-in-law to Viceroy Velasco, who, starting in 1554 from the mines of Zacatecas with a company of soldiers, all at his own cost,
- ↑ Records of exact dates are very meagre and conflicting in this and the following decade. The founding has been placed even as early as 1545 and 1548. It is said that some muleteers discovered the mine of San Bernabé on the Cubilete hill in 1548, and the place was called Real de Minas, and later Santa Fé, but retained the Indian appellation of Guanajuato. Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ix. 92-3. The growth was slow. Its title of a villa was not confirmed till 1679. Medina, Chrón. San Diego, 258. The first shafts were sunk in that lode in April 1558, but it does not seem to have been worked to advantage till 1760. Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 499; Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 164; Geiger's Peep at Mex., 201-2.
- ↑ Humboldt estimated, in 1820, that the Veta Madre of Guanajuato had yielded more than a fourth part of the silver of Mexico, and a sixth part of the produce of all America. The production in later years has been something truly wonderful. As they have sunk deeper the lode of ore has become richer.
