Besides these towns there are the Villa Feliz de Tamasula, north-west of Durango on the boundary of Sinaloa; Papasquiaro with 6,000 inhabitants; Guarisamey, a mining town, in a deep and warm valley, surrounded with steep mountains near 9,000 feet high, and containing about 4,000 people; La Villa de Mapimi, north of the Rio Nasas, on the borders of the Bolson de Mapimi, and east of the Cerro de la Cadena, with about 3,000 inhabitants; Cuencame; El Oro; and many other villages and towns, too numerous and too unimportant for separate notice, but which deserve recollection as indicating the tendency of this region to aggregate population. The State contained in 1833, 250,000 inhabitants, according to good authority, and it is probable that at present it does not number less than 300,000.
Durango is rich in mineral deposits. Iron abounds within a quarter of a league of the gates of the capital. The Cerro del Mercado is entirely composed of iron ores of two distinct qualities,—crystallized and magnetic,—but almost equally rich, as they contain from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of pure metal. Silver is also abundant in the mountains; but the mines have been carelessly worked, and, in some places, are abandoned for want of suitable machinery or enterprize. The principal districts and places in which this precious deposit has been found and profitably wrought, are at Gavalines, Guarisamey and San Dimas, in the two last of which the fortunate adventurer Zambrano, acquired, during twenty-five years, the extraordinary wealth he possessed. These mines are divided into Tamasula, Canélas and Sianori, lying on the western slope of the Cordillera; and Guanasevi, Indée, El Oro, Cuencame and Mapimi, on the eastern declivities. They lie about five days' journey west of the capital.
The following interesting sketch of Indian necrology is given in the valuable and recent work of Mühlenpfordt upon the Mexican Republic.
In the State of Durango,—says this interesting German author,—especially in the unexplored portion of the Bolson de Mapimi, many relics of antiquity, important for the history of this country, are probably hidden. In the summer of 1838, a remarkable old Indian cave of sepulture was discovered in this singular region. Among the few establishments which enterprizing settlers have founded in that lonely territory which is overrun by wild Indians, one of the most important is the estate of San Juan de Casta, on its western border, 86 leagues north of the town of Durango. Don Juan Flores, its proprietor, rambling one day with several companions in the eastern part of the Bolson, remarked the entrance of a cavern on the side of a mountain. He went in, and beheld, as he imagined, a great number of Indians sitting silently around the walls of the cave. Flores immediately rushed forth in affright, to communicate his remarkable discovery to his friends, who at once supposed that the story of the adventurer was nothing but an affair of fancy, as they no where found any trace or foot path to show that the secluded spot had been hitherto visited. But, in order to satisfy themselves, they entered the cavern with pine torches,—and their sight was greeted by more than a thousand corpses in a state of perfect preservation, their hands clasped beneath their knees, and sitting on the ground. They were clad in mantles excellently woven and wrought of the fibres of a bastard aloe, indigenous in these regions, which is called lechuguilla, with bands and scarfs of variegated stuffs. Their ornaments were strings of fruit-kernels, with beads formed of bone, ear-rings, and thin cylindrical bones polished and gilt, and their sandals were made of a species of liana.
CHAPTER XII.
STATE OF CHIHUAHUA—POSITION—BOUNDARIES—EXTENT—CHARACTERISTICS—RIVERS—LAKES—INDIANS—DIVISIONS—CLIMATE—PRODUCTIONS—CATTLE ESTATES—MINT—MINES—PRINCIPAL TOWNS—CHIHUAHUA—EL PASO DEL NORTE—MILITARY IMPORTANCE—EL PASO WINE, ETC.—ANTIQUITIES—INDIAN RAVAGES—THE BOLSON DE MAPIMI—MEXICAN MODES OF TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORTATION—LITERA—MULES—ARRIEROS—CONDUCTA—COACHES—FREIGHT WAGONS—MEXICAN HABIT OF HOME-STAYING—WANT OF EXPLORATION—MODERN ADVANCEMENT.
THE STATE OF CHIHUAHUA.
The State of Chihuahua, containing an area of 17,1511/2 square leagues, or 119,169 English square miles, and reaching from 26° 53´ 36´´ to 32° 57´ 43´´ north latitude, is bounded on the north by New Mexico, east by Coahuila and Texas, south by Durango, south-west by Sinaloa, and north-west by Sonora. The great mountain chain of Mexico, which is the connecting link between the Rocky Mountains of the north and the Andes of the south, is here known as the Sierra Madre, and occupies chiefly the western part of the State, where its elevations attain a vast height, and at length, descend abruptly, cut by deep barrancas or ravines, until they are lost in the plains of Sonora and Sinaloa. Mexican authorities state the highest point of the Sierra Madre, at the Peaks of Jesus Maria, to be 8,441 feet above the level of the sea. The greater portion of Chihuahua consequently lies, like Durango, upon the plateau of Mexico, and only a small part upon the western slope of the Sierra Madre. The loftier elevations of the Cordillera, as it passes upward from Durango, lean towards the west until they pass the centre of Chihuahua, and then bending once more, nearly north, pursue their way through New Mexico into the remote wilderness of our Union. Towards the east these steeps become gradually depressed until they are lost in the vast and uncultivated regions of the Bolson de Mapimi, whose elevation above the sea is still 3,800 feet, according to the measurement of Dr. Wislizenius.
Seventeen rivers and streams flow through the territory of this State. The Rio Bravo, or Rio Grande del Norte; the Rio Conchas; Florida; Chihuahua; Tonachi; Llanos; Casas Grandes; San Buenaventura; Carmen; Santa Isabel; Pasesiochi; Mulatos; Chiñapas; Parral; San Pedro; Batopilas; and Rio Grande de Bavispe. The lakes or lagunes are those of San Martin; Guzman; Patos, or Candelaria; Encinillas; and Castilla. The river Nasas, which rises in Durango debouches in the Lake of Cayman, in the Bolson de Mapimi. The climate resembles that of the adjoining State of Durango. In the year 1834, the population, according to official statistics was 145,182; at present, it is estimated at from 150,000 to 160,000, which number would give about 1.3 for each English square mile. This is probably the actual number of inhabitants within the State, exclusive of Indians and some wild dwellers among the mountains who were not comprised in the census of 1833. Large numbers of aborigines occupy the lonelier portions of Chihuahua. Tribes of Tepehuanés, Llanos, Acotlames, Cocoyames and a few remnants of the Aztecs are found within its borders. In the Bolson de Mapimi, and on the borders of the mountain ranges of the Chanáte, El Diabolo Puerco, and Pilares, swarm numbers of the Apaches Mescaléros and Farones, who are often engaged in war with the savage and robber tribes of Cumanches, whose constant inroads into the Mexican territory are a source of incessant annoyance and insecurity to the people of the frontier. In the ravines and valleys of the Sierra de los Mimbres, in the north-west of the State, the Apache Mímbreños are found, while further south, in the wild and deep dells of Tararécua and Santa Sinforosa various bands of the Tarahuamares still pursue their hunter-life in perfect freedom.
There is some doubt, in consequence of the conflict of authorities, as to the divisions of the State of Chihuahua. According to the Noticias Estadisticas of Señor Escudero, published in 1834, it was composed of four districts: Chihuahua, Hidalgo, Paso del Norte, and Guadalupe y Calvo,—in the first of which are the partidos of Aldama, Cosihuiriachi, Papigochi, and Jesus Maria de Rosales;—in the second, the partidos of Allende and Jimenez;—in the third, the partidos of Galeanas and Janos;—and in the fourth, those of Batopilas and Balleza or Tepehuanes. According to an article published by the same writer in the fourth volume of the Museo Mexicano, in 1844, he apparently entertains the opinion that the same divisions still continue; but, if the authority of another and very positive correspondent of the same work is to be relied on in reference to the last mentioned period, Chihuahua was divided into the partidos of Aldama, Allende, Balleza, Batopilas, Concepcion, Cosihuiriachi, Galeana, Hidalgo, Jimenez, Paso, and Rosales, formerly Tapacolmes.