The settlements founded by the early colonists of Honduras were slow of growth. In a letter addressed by Pedraza to the audiencia of the Confines, dated May 1, 1547, he states that the seven Spanish towns which the province then contained[XVII‑9] "were always increasing as were the villages;" and yet we find that Trujillo, which had then become the largest of them, contained but fifty settlers, while none of the others numbered more than thirty. The absence of communication with the South Sea, and the distance from the highways of commerce between Spain and the new world, no doubt retarded greatly the increase of population; for the agricultural and mineral resources of the territory were not inferior to those of other provinces which contained more than ten times the number of inhabitants. The want of good roads and of facilities for travel was also a serious drawback; and it is probable that to make a tour of the different settlements in Honduras, all lying within a radius of less than forty leagues, occupied, in the middle of the sixteenth century, almost as much time as would now be required to accomplish the circuit of the globe.[XVII‑10] [Sidenote: GOLD-MINING.] The mines of Honduras had already begun to yield a moderate amount of treasure, and but for the wholesale destruction of the natives and the want of negro labor could have been made to produce far greater returns. As far back as the days of Pedrarias Dávila it was known that those in the Olancho valley were extremely rich, but for want of the necessary tools they could not be worked. With only their stirrup irons the Spaniards in two months scraped up gold to the value of sixteen thousand pesos de oro, and "with proper implements," Herrera states, "they might have taken out two hundred thousand pesos." The early prosperity of Gracias á Dios was due to the discovery of rich mines in its vicinity, and it soon became one of the most prosperous settlements in the province. The richest one was that of San Andrés de Nueva Zaragoza, in a mountain west of the town and east of the Copan valley. Gold could here be scratched out of the earth with a stick. In another mine, belonging to one Bartolomé Martin de Sanabria, more than a pound of gold was daily collected by himself and a single slave. Later the yield became so large that alcaldes mayores were appointed to collect the royal fifth, with power to compel one fourth of the Indians within a circuit of twelve miles to labor in them. "Near Comayagua," says Oviedo, "they took out and smelted ore which yielded sixty thousand pesos de oro, and forty thousand more were supposed to have been stolen."[XVII‑11]