Among the first settlers at Catorce was an ecclesiastic named Flores, who bought for 700 dollars a newly-opened mine, which received the significant name of ‘La Bolsa de Dios Padre,’ or ‘God the Father’s Money-Bag.’ Never was a small capital more profitably invested, for, at a depth of about twenty yards, a deposit of such enormous richness was discovered that in less than three years the profits of Padre Flores amounted to three millions and a half of dollars. The mines of Pachuca, Real del Monte, and Moran began to be worked soon after the conquest. The Veta de la Biscayna, the chief vein of the district, yielded immense profits from the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, when, in consequence of insufficient drainage, the mines were drowned. An enterprising hidalgo, Don José Bustamente, then began to drive a draining gallery, 7,000 feet long, which, however, was only finished after his death by his partner, Don Pedro Terreros, a merchant of Queretaro. Its immense cost was amply repaid, for Terreros extracted no less than fifteen millions of dollars from the mine, and was ennobled under the title of Conde de la Regla. His liberality was worthy of his wealth, for besides a gift of two ships of the line—one of them of 112 guns—to King Charles III. of Spain, he lent the court of Madrid a million of dollars, which, it is almost superfluous to remark, were never repaid. He built the enormous factories of La Regla at a cost of more than 400,000_l_., and left his children a property rivalling that of the Conde de la Valenciana. Since 1774, however, the profits of the Biscayna, which was now worked 300 feet below the adit, began to diminish; for though it still continued to yield enormous quantities of ore, the water flowed in so abundantly that twenty-eight baritels,[44] each requiring forty horses, and worked at an expense of 2,000_l._ per week, was incapable of mastering it. At the death of the old Conde the works were abandoned, until 1791, when his heirs once more set all the baritels in motion; but the proceeds not covering the expenses, the works were again abandoned. Footnote 44: A very primitive contrivance for raising the water in skin bags.