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working of these mines; and two years after, the latter had the good fortune to find an exceedingly rich vein, which up to the year 1834 produced no less than 1,680,316 marks of silver.

Before 1770 the populous district of Alamos de Catorce in the State of San Luis de Potosi, was still a complete desert. About this time a free negro, named Milagros, who made a scant livelihood as an itinerant musician, having lost his way, was obliged to pass the night in the forest. On the following morning he found a few drops of silver on the spot where he had made a fire, and, on a closer examination, discovered the rich cropping out of a bed of argentiferous ores. He lost no time in establishing the right of property which he derived from his discovery, and opened the shaft Milagros, which, in a few years, made him a wealthy man.

Soon after Don Barnabé de Zepeda discovered the chief vein of Catorce the Veta Madre-which continued to be worked with great success until the revolution. This event having proved as destructive to the draining machines of Catorce as to those of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas, a contract was made with an English house for the furnishing of a steam-engine, the first ever seen in Mexico. It was landed at Tampico in May 1822, but arrived at Alamos six months later, as the carts which dragged the heavy piece of machinery broke down every moment on the wretched roads which lead to the central plateau on which the mines are situated. This, however, was but the prelude of new difficulties; for as the neighbouring forests could not furnish wood fit for the purpose, it was necessary to order iron pump-tubes in England, which did not arrive before 1826, so that the engine could not be set to work until four years had passed after its arrival in Mexico. The history of Catorce affords many remarkable examples of good fortune; but as most of the rich mineros (mine-proprietors) were men of low birth and without education, they squandered their treasures as fast as they acquired them. Medellin, the proprietor of the mine Dolores, once spent 36,000 dollars on a christening party; and at times, when the share of the hewers amounted to one-third of the extracted ores, a common miner would stake two or three thousand dollars on the issue of a cock-fight.

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 400,000l., 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, each requiring forty horses, and worked at an expense of 2,000l. 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. In the year 1824, when the frenzy of mining speculations

*

A very primitive contrivance for raising the water in skin bags.

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was at its height, a company was formed in London, with a capital of 400,000l., for the purpose of working the mine of Tlalpujahua, in the State of Mejoacan, which had long since been abandoned. Without any accurate information, a number of supervisors and workmen were sent to the spot in 1825, when they found all the mines under water. Yet, in spite of this rather unpromising state of affairs, the company, not satisfied with its first acquisitions, entered into new engagements, so that at the end of 1825 it had contracted for no less than eighty mines, for which it bound itself to pay the proprietors annuities amounting to more than 50,000 dollars during the first three years. Operations were now begun in many places at once, but every one of them ended in disappointment; and in 1828 the company, after spending every farthing of its capital, vanished into airy nothing,' abandoning the mines to their original proprietors, and leaving the ill-fated shareholders to mourn over their credulity and folly.

Subsequently another English company undertook the working of the mines of Real del Monte, and after spending no less than 15,381,633 dollars, against a produce of 10,481,475 dollars, was dissolved in 1848. Mr. Buchan now undertook the management for a Mexican company, and almost immediately struck the great Rosario vein, which opened a long career of prosperity, and yielded a profit of a million of dollars in 1867. Every fortnight a conducta, or escort, of one hundred and fifty armed men conveys the silver, in bars of seventy pounds, inclosed in an iron safe, to the capital.

It would be vain to seek in the Mexican mines for the scientific arrangement which is to be found in most of the English or German subterranean workings. One of their chief faults consists in a want of communication between their various parts, so that they resemble those ill-arranged houses where, to go from one room to another, one is obliged to traverse long and crooked passages. Hence the impossibility of introducing in most of the mines an economical transport by means of tramroads and waggons, and hence also the necessity of conveying the ore to the surface by human labour. The native Indians, however, are ad

* Illustrated London News, No. 1477, Saturday, April 11, 1868.

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mirable carriers, for they will climb steep ladders, with 240 to 380 pounds, and perform this hard work for six hours consecutively. Their muscular strength seemed truly astonishing to Humboldt, who, though having no weight to carry but his own, felt himself utterly exhausted after ascending from a deep mine.

Most of the Mexican silver is extracted from the ores by the process of amalgamation. For this purpose the ore is first crushed either by rollers, or, more generally, by stamps, called in Mexico molinos, which in principle resemble those used in the tin mines of Cornwall, but are not so powerful, and are worked either by water-power or by mules.

The crushed ores are then conveyed to the arrastres, or grinding-mills, which are usually arranged in rows in a large gallery or shed. The ore, having been brought into a finely divided state, is next allowed to run out of the arrastre into shallow tanks or reservoirs, where it remains exposed to the sun until it has the appearance of thick mud, and in this state the process is proceeded with. The lama, as it is called, or slime, is now laid out on the patio, or amalgamation floor (which is in some places boarded, and in others paved with flat stones), in large masses called tortas, from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and about a foot thick; and so extensive are the floors that a large number of these tortas are seen in progress at the same time. When the ore has been laid out in masses on the patio, the operations necessary to produce the chemical changes commence.

The

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first ingredient introduced is salt, in the proportion of fifty pounds to every ton of ore, and a number of mules are made to tread it, so that it may be dissolved in the water and intimately blended with the mass. On the following day another ingredient is introduced, called in Mexico magistral. It is common copper-pyrites, or sulphide of copper and iron, pulverised and calcined, which converts it into a sulphate. About twenty-five pounds of this magistral are added for every ton of ore in the torta, and the mules are again put in,

and tread the mass for several hours. Chemical action now commences, and new combinations between the decomposed mineral substances are in progress. Quicksilver is then introduced, being spread over the torta in very small particles, which is effected by passing it through a coarse cloth. The quantity required is six times the estimated weight of the silver contained in the ore.

The quicksilver being spread over the surface, the mules are once more put in, and tread the whole until it is well mixed. Great skill is now required to watch the progress