Gold mines were now worked in New Mexico, _El Real de Dolores_, the chief one, turning out about $75,000 a year between 1832-35. It was opened in 1828. The gold was washed out in wooden bowls. No foreigners were allowed to work mines, but, as noted, they were permitted to trap because the Mexicans did not know how to do this. Besides, the governor would often confiscate the results of the trapper's labours, and this was an easy way of making money. Silver mines had been only slightly worked in earlier days and not at all for a century. The copper mines near Socorro were the most successful in the country, at least till the gold mines began to be opened. Everything was primitive. Sawed lumber was unknown. The buildings were mainly of adobe. Vehicles were _carretas_ (carts) with wheels hewn out of a cottonwood log, with an additional segment pinned on each edge and dressed into an irregular circle (see page 177), and required three or four yokes of oxen to draw them. Ploughs were no more than a log with a branch left on for a handle and a sharp stick attached for a share. Agriculture was correspondingly primitive in its returns, yet, thanks to irrigation, there was generally an abundance of what was needed. Sheep were bred in enormous numbers, as many as two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand being driven to market in one year. Horses and cattle were also numerous, and the skill of the _vaquero_, or herder, in riding and throwing the lasso was unsurpassed. No horse was too fractious to ride, and he could catch an animal by any limb he chose. A favourite article of diet was the _tortillas_, made of corn boiled in water with a little lime till soft enough for the skin to come off. Then it was ground to a paste on the _metate_ a flat stone, and formed into a thin cake, which was spread on a sheet of iron or copper, called a comal (_comalli_), and placed over the fire, where it baked in two or three minutes. A sort of thin mush called _atole_ was a favourite drink, and there were also wine, and a sort of strong liquor called _aguardiente_ or _ratafia_ (Taos lightning). Taken all in all the American trapper did not have such a bad time in New Mexico after it left the hands of Spain, so far as the people were concerned, and had they despised the Mexicans less, matters would have been pleasanter, though, as Gregg says, the government was whimsical and oppressive, as much, however, to Mexicans as to Americans. [Illustration: On the Gila. Photograph by J. B. Lippincott.] A high tariff was laid on goods from the United States, though it was generally compromised on the Mexican frontier. When Governor Armijo, however, came in he imposed a tax of $500 on every waggon, no matter what its size or contents. The result was that waggons grew to the limit in proportions, and Armijo was obliged to go back to _ad valorem_ assessments. Between the Missouri River and the mountains there were no settlements then, above Texas.