tecas, and the salable offices brought at auction from six to eight thousand pesos.[1] The province had also a lieutenant captain-general, and a force of troops for protection in case of outbreaks among the natives.[2] In wealth and probably in population the city was superior to the capital of Nueva Galicia.[3]
The mining districts of Fresnillo, Sombrerete, Pinos, Nieves, Mazapil, and Zacatecas were all alcaldías mayores, subject to a corregimiento, to which grade, in 1736, the so-called province of Zacatecas was raised, the districts of Aguas Calientes and Juchipila being added three years later. When the alcaldías mayores and corregimientos were abolished by the ordinance establishing intendencias, these latter districts were made a part of the intendencia of Guadalajara, until joined to that of Zacatecas by royal decree of December 30, 1791.
The town of Aguas Calientes derived its name from the thermal springs in its immediate vicinity.[4] In
- ↑ Zacatecas, Rel., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., ix. 184-6. Mier y Campo, in Revista Lien., ii. 111, says the royal treasury was established in 1767.
- ↑ In 1608 Cristóbal de Cardivar is named as holding the position of 'teniente de capitan general.' Ibid. The same writer speaks of a governor of Zacatecas appointed every six years by the council of the Indies. A 'capitan á guerra' is also mentioned about 1745 in Villa-Señor, Teatro, ii. 223.
- ↑ The population of the province of Zacatecas for 1793 as given by Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 57, 155, was 118,027; that of the capital, 25,495, and in 1803, 153,300 including city and province. For description of principal places see Id., 260-61; also Viagero, Univ., xxvii. 105-6. For the latter year the tribunal del consulado, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ii. 6, gives 1681 square leagues and 151,749 inhabitants. Murillo, Geog. Hist., 814, gives 40,000 for the city in 1778-9, and Cancelada, Ruina, 73-5, the same figures as the consulado. Navarro, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2d ep., i. 291, has in 1810 for the intendencia of Zacatecas 2,355 square leagues, with 22,296 Spaniards, 40,872 Indians, and 77,555 other races; 6 partidos, 17 curates, a city, 2 villas, 28 pueblos, 19 reales de minas, 108 haciendas, 438 ranchos, and 10 cattle ranchos. See also Flint's Geog., ii. 132; Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ix. 275; Berghes, Zac., 4; Zuñiga y O., Calend., 116-17; N. Esp., Brev. Res., ii. 319-20.
- ↑ The town used the royal arms, having no coat of arms of its own. Aguirre, Doc. Antig., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2d ep. iii. 19. For other
Zac., 42-50. In 1750 the mines did not yield more than 500,000 pesos; but the output increased in a few years to ten times as much through the efforts of one Laborde. Jacobs' Hist. Inq., ii. 153. The wealthiest inhabitant of Zacatecas was Agustin de Zavala, who in 20 years had paid in silver king's fifths to the amount of 800,000 pesos, which shows that during that time he had sent to be marked 4,000,000. Salgado, Vida, 23. This is the same Zavala who was governor of Nuevo Leon.
