Note 53 — COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION

The mines were the well-known "Santa Rita de Cobre," in the western angle of the Sierra de Mogoyon, near the headwaters of the Gila and about one hundred miles west of the Rio del Norte. Mexicans began to work them in 1804. They proved very profitable (see post, p. 350), although the difficulty of obtaining supplies was great, owing to the plundering Apache. In 1838 these Indians entirely cut off the supply trains, and the mines were abandoned. They were for a time (1851) the headquarters of the boundary commission for the United States and Mexico. See Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations (New York, 1854), i, pp. 226-239. Mining was resumed in 1873; the property is now operated by the Santa Rita Company, and is among the best equipped mines in the territory.—Ed.