The population of Guanaxuato naturally fluctuates with the prosperity of the mines. In 1806 and 1807, when they were in the highest state of activity, it amounted to 90,000 souls; during the wars of independence it sank to 20,000, but since then it has again risen to 60,000. Next to the mines of Guanaxuato those of Zacatecas are distinguished by their richness. They are likewise situated on the great central plateau of the Cordillera in a wild mountain region whose forbidding aspect forms a strange contrast to the riches concealed under its surface. In 1826 the United Mexican and the Bolaños Company undertook the working of these mines; and two years after, the latter had the good fortune to find an exceedingly rich vein, which up to the year 1834 produced no less than 1,680,316 marks of silver. Before 1770 the populous district of Alamos de Catorce in the State of San Luis de Potosi, was still a complete desert. About this time a free negro, named Milagros, who made a scant livelihood as an itinerant musician, having lost his way, was obliged to pass the night in the forest. On the following morning he found a few drops of silver on the spot where he had made a fire, and, on a closer examination, discovered the rich cropping out of a bed of argentiferous ores. He lost no time in establishing the right of property which he derived from his discovery, and opened the shaft Milagros, which, in a few years, made him a wealthy man. Soon after Don Barnabé de Zepeda discovered the chief vein of Catorce— the Veta Madre—which continued to be worked with great success until the revolution. This event having proved as destructive to the draining machines of Catorce as to those of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas, a contract was made with an English house for the furnishing of a steam-engine, the first ever seen in Mexico. It was landed at Tampico in May 1822, but arrived at Alamos six months later, as the carts which dragged the heavy piece of machinery broke down every moment on the wretched roads which lead to the central plateau on which the mines are situated. This, however, was but the prelude of new difficulties; for as the neighbouring forests could not furnish wood fit for the purpose, it was necessary to order iron pump-tubes in England, which did not arrive before 1826, so that the engine could not be set to work until four years had passed after its arrival in Mexico. The history of Catorce affords many remarkable examples of good fortune; but as most of the rich _mineros_ (mine-proprietors) were men of low birth and without education, they squandered their treasures as fast as they acquired them. Medellin, the proprietor of the mine Dolores, once spent 36,000 dollars on a christening party; and at times, when the share of the hewers amounted to one-third of the extracted ores, a common miner would stake two or three thousand dollars on the issue of a cock-fight.