are memorable events in the history of Mexico--more
memorable than they deserve to have been.

As we rode along the eastern rim of the valley, the sun was shining
brightly on the western hill that inclosed it. The opening made by the
canal of Huehuetoca was plain in sight. To read about this canal and to
derive an idea of it from books is to get an impression that here, at
least, the Spaniards did a wonderful work. But to look at it is to
dissipate all such complimentary notions. The engineer who planned it
may have been a skillful man, but the government that fettered his
movements, like all Spanish governments of those times, consisted of a
cross between fools and priests. Even those pious gamblers, the
Franciscans, had a finger in the business. After absorbing, for near a
hundred years, the revenue appropriated to completing the work, they
abandoned it to the merchants of Mexico, who finally finished it. The
pond that was to be drained by it, the Zumpango, was certainly an
insignificant affair. There was nothing farther of interest until we
arrived at Pachuca.

Pachuca is the oldest mining district in Mexico. In its immediate
vicinity are the most interesting silver mines of the republic. These
mines were the first that were worked in the country, and immediately
after the Conquest they were very productive. They were worked for
generations, and then abandoned; again resumed after lying idle for
nearly a century, and worked for almost another hundred years; and then
once more abandoned, and resumed again while I was in Mexico. They now
produce that princely revenue to Escandon and Company of which I have
already spoken.

THE HAKAL MINE.

The Hakal (_Haxal_) mine in part belonged to the number of those which
the English Real del Monte Company worked on shares, with poor success,
for twenty-five years. It lies about three fourths of a mile from the
village of Pachuca. That company devoted their chief attention to the
mines upon the top of the mountain, at an elevation of 9057 feet, and
seven miles distant from this place, and these mines were comparatively
neglected. The new company, immediately upon taking possession, devoted
particular attention to the Hakal, which resulted in their striking a
_bonanza_,[72] in the Rosario shaft, which was yielding, from a single
small shaft, about $80,000 a month, if I recollect rightly.[73] The ore
of this mine is of a peculiar quality, and its silver is best separated
from