150

AMERICAN MINES.

CHAP. XXII.

armaments or by predatory bands; but Mexico from its physical position had been subject to nosuch attacks. It thus presents us with an objectscarcely observable in any other part of the globein any age, of a country which for three centurieshad never been exposed to internal or externalcommotions. As, during the continuance of thislong period, there was no fear for the security ofcapita] invested in mines, or for that employed inagricultural improvements, however slow the pro-gress, or however impeded by the colonial re-strictions and the arbitrary power in the hands ofthe viceroys, there must have been an increase inmaterial wealth correspondent to that which theproduce of the mines exhibits.

Whether the increase be owing to other andto what causes, and to what extent, may be in-teresting to inquire; but the simple fact that thesoil had neither been polluted by the blood of itsinhabitants nor by that of invaders, that no hostilefoot had trod its surface or attempted to land onits shores for three hundred years, is sufficientalone to account for the progress which Mexico had made up to the time of her fatal revolution.

In the course of three centuries, though thegreat mass of the aborigines had remained withbut little change in their circumstances, yet manyindividuals of the tribes, especially of those whoresided near the cities, had emancipated them-selves from the low condition of their race, and