Front matter
CAPT. JAMES BOX'S l^kitas anir (Sfepteaiions IH NEW AND OLD MEXICO. CAPT. JAMES BOX'S |Uwffltea and (^xptationa IN NEW AND OLD MEXICO. BEING THE RECORD OF TEN YEARS OF TRAVEL AND RESEARCH, AND A GUIDE TO THE MINERAL TREASURES OP DURANGO, CHIHUAHUA, THE SIERRA NEVADA. (EAST SIDE.) SINALOA, AND SONORA, (PACIFIC SIDE.) AND THE SOUTHERN PART OF ARIZONA. BY CAPT. MICHAEL JAMES BOX, Of the Texan Rangers. Jfcto-ttork : JAMES MILLER, PUBLISHER, 647 BROADWAY. 18 6 9. Entered according to Act orCongress, in the year 1S69, Bv JAMES MILLER. In the Clerk'* office os the District Court of the suited States for the Southern District of New York. PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. The following work has been put to press in the absence of the author. It may be possible, therefore, that some errors of orthography of proper names may have occurred.
If such have been made they will be corrected in a new and more complete edition of the " Notes," which will doubtless follow this first edition, in due time. The publishers present the work to the public, believing that it will prove of unusual interest and value to the many who are now turning eager eyes toward the vast regions described in the " Notes." Co COL. BESJ. McCULLOUGH, THE GALLANT SOLDIER AND RANGER, THIS LITTLE BOOK, THE RE3ULT OF TEARS OP RESEARCH AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE WILDS AND FA3TNBSSE8 OB" THE NEW" LAND OF PROMISE, IS DEDICATED, BY HIS OLD COMPANION IN ARMS, THE AUTHOR. Contents. THE VALLEY OF THE SONORA 10 Haciendas, 21— Ures, 23— Tapaury, 28 — Wayside ToivnB and Places, 24— Arispe, 26— Chinipas and Bacuachi, 33— The Head Waters of the Sonora, 38— Head Waters of the San Pedro, 41— Right Fork of the Sonora, 44 — The Gold Diggings of Bacuachi, 4T. VALLEY OF THE FRONTERAS AND YAGUI RIVERS.
Ranche of Tahuichopa, 55 — Fronteras, 56 — San Bernardino, 58 — The Garden of Sonora, 59 — Crowing the Mountains, 62 — Babispe, 63 — Mining Region near Compos, 64 — Compos, 65 — Road to Opo sura, 66 — Oposura, 6T— Alabaster Vein of Oposura, 6S — Country be tween the Oposura and Yagui Rivers, 69 — Country along the Yagui, 72 — North Side of the Mayo, 73 — On the Yagui, south from Hermo gillo, 75 — Curiejo, 76 — Bayoreja, T7. THE MAYO AND FUERTE VALLEYS 79 Tepahui, 81 — Tespustete, 82 — Alamos, S2— Hacienda of San Anto nio, 84 — Country Southeast of Alamo.-, 85 — The Canon of Baneya gua, 8*5 — Mountain Fastnesses of the Fuerte, S7 — Mines of the Fuerte, 90— Over the Sierra Madre, 92 — Urique, 94 — Copper Ore^ cf Fuerte Valley, 95 — Chois, 99 — Sinaloa, 102 — Bayemena, 103 — Yucorati, 103 — Casa Vieja, 104 — Guadalupe Calvo, 105— Morelos, 100— Batopolis, 107— The Old Indian of Santa Rita, 113— Traits of the Fuerte Valley, 116— Masamique Copper Mine, 118 — L^ Plantanas and other Mines, 119 — Farming Lands, 121 — Fuerte, 122 — The Country South of Fuerte, 124— The Town of Sinaloa, 120.
Appendix
335 Plan of a National Pacific Railroad, 337— Plan of a Railroad from Guaymas to Fuerte Valley, 341 — Road from Fuerte to Mazatlan, 341 —The Eastern Side of the Mountains, 342. I have been prompted to this account of the mineral resources of Mexico, by having been, for ten years, the daily witness ot facts proving the great wealth hidden in the recesses of the Sierra Madre, and lying at the bottom of the rivers emptying into the gulf of California. Jealous to secure to my countrymen a more intimate knowledge of a country toward which English capitalists have already begun to direct their thoughts and endeavors, I resolved to give them the description, imperfect as it is, which my pretty thor ough knowledge of Northern Mexico enables me to communicate. Americans have a sort of pre-emption right to those countries lying along their boundaries ; especially when, by treaties, by means of commerce, and by peaceably settling those provinces and developing their resources, they bind them to the United States by the strongest of ties.
It will only be when we shall have thus taken possession of Mexico, that an end will be put to civil warfare within her borders, and her degraded population become elevated into prosperous, intelligent, and peace-loving citizens. Filibustering, which is the ill-directed effort of the few to grasp what ought to belong to the nation, will then die a natural death, and civil warfare be heard of no more. Immense benefits would arise from di recting American capital into channels so remunera tive and so near at hand — benefits which, in the ex citement of the fierce contentions of party spirit, are being overlooked. In Mexico lies a vast region of silver, which can never be made to enrich Mexico as it now exists. What she lacks are energy and capital. These great wants the United States can supply — the first of these two requisites being her " staple commodity," and the latter not being " scarce."
Mexico is only known to the world of the last half of the nineteenth century by its civil wars. Around it still lingers something of the romance of its early Spanish history ; and its very name brings to mind the high daring and indomitable spirit, the cruelty and avarice, mixed with a singular gallantry, of its conqueror, Cortez. All the more do those old legends haunt us, because in the present state of the country the evident lack of vitality forcibly recalls the first devastation which the rapacious Spaniards brought upon it, and we forget that any more prosperous age has intervened. In the early part of this century the product of the mines was twenty-three millions annually, and the commerce of the country amounted to twenty-six millions. "What a contrast to its present impover ished condition ! Now only a few of the richest mines are known by name ; whereas, according to AtTHOR's
The opening of the book is shown; the full text loads in the reader.
Loading the full text…
The end
You’ve reached the end of Capt. James Box's Adventures and Explorations in New and Old Mexico, etc.