A hundred miles northwest of the city of Mexico is the mining center of El Oro. The El Oro district is especially rich in its gold and silver deposits. You will recall that it was these two metals that attracted the early Spanish explorers and adventures. Cortes overthrew the Incas largely to secure their gold and silver. That they had gold in plenty the Spaniards knew, because their king, the Montezuma, had given the Spanish leader large pieces of the metal. Some of their buildings were crowned with beaten gold. The chiegs of the Incas wore gold and silver ornaments. The Spaniards and the English who first came to America heard so much about the rich minerals of Mexico and the western part of the continent, that they reported a city of gold. It was to find this fabled city that DeSoto made his famous march inland as far as the Mississippi

River. Another common report was that gold was so plentiful that it grew on trees. The Spaniards did not find gold so plentiful as they expected but each year their ships took back heavy loads of gold and silver bullion to the Mother Country. Fortunes were taken from many of the western Mexican and South American ports, around Cape Horn. Great loads were carried overland across Panama to save the long sea journey. Today Mexico is still very rich in minerals. Some of its mines have been worked since the first half of the 16th century. The natives had worked them long before. It is only in recent years that the mines have been equipped with modern machinery. In 1912 the value of the gold mined in Mexico was almost $25,000,000, and the silver, about $45,000,000.