of gold was made a few years ago. In this latter discovery, the poor diggers suffered so much from thirst that a dollar was readily paid for a single bucket of water, and at length, by reason of the drought, this rich placer had to be abandoned.
FUTURE OF SONORA.
Such is Sonora, a region of country which combines the rare attractions of the richest silver mines in the world, lying in the midst of the finest agricultural districts, and where the climate is as attractive as its mineral riches.
But its richest mineral district is near its northern frontier, and is almost inaccessible, and can never be advantageously worked without an abundant supply of mineral coal for smelting; nor can any of its mines or estates be successfully worked without greater security for life and property than at present exists.
The capitalists of Mexico will not invest their means in developing the resources of Sonora, and in consequence, the finest country in the world is fast receding to a state of nature.
I found in the Palace at Mexico a copy of the last report of the Governor of Sonora upon the state of his Department, in which he mentions, among many other causes of its decadence during the last few years, the extensive emigration of its laboring population to California.
Extravagant as are these statements of the mineral riches of Sonora, they probably do not come up to the reality, as the largest of them are founded on the sums reported for taxation at the distant city of Mexico, when it was notorious, as already stated, that a large portion of the silver was fraudulently concealed in order to avoid the taxes. Such concealment could be successfully carried on in a region so distant and inaccessible as Sonora was in the time of Philip V., for