History
In 1583, in the town of Mesquitique, Brother Diego de la Magdalena met with some of the Guachichil natives. Among them was one named Cualiname or Gualiname, who called their attention to golden outlines in their face paintings. The friar asked him where he had obtained this pigment. The native told him that there was much of the powder to the east of their present location.
Brother Diego told Brother Francisco Franco about this discovery, who told Captain Miguel Caldera, who took possession of the place. Captain Caldera sent Gregorio de León, Juan de la Torre, and Pedro de Anda to prospect for minerals. The latter named the place San Pedro del Potosí, to honor his namesake saint and in memory of the famous mines of the Potosí in Alto Perú, today Bolivia.
In and around the hill was much gold and silver, but there was not enough water to make it worth mining. The nearest water was towards the north, in a region still dominated by several native Chichimeca tribes, and where the city of San Luis Potosí would later arise. The historian Primo Feliciano Velázquez y Basalenque included extensive descriptions of the place in his accounts.
Read more about this topic: Cerro De San Pedro
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)