Toluca.--Queretaro, Guanajuato, and
Zacatecas.--Fresnillo.--"Romancing."--A lucky Priest.--San Luis
Potosi.--The Valenciana at Guanajuato.--Under-mining.--A Name of
Blasphemy.--The Los Rayas.--Immense Sums taken from Los Rayas.--Warlike
Indians in Zacatecas.
A stage runs daily from the city of Mexico by Tacubaya and the Desierto
to the beautiful valley and city of Toluca. This town is greatly
indebted for its present celebrity to successful mining adventures. Its
Cathedral is a monument of the munificent liberality of the Frenchman
Laborde, whose fortune was ever unequal to his generosity. We have
spoken already of the almost Oriental magnificence displayed in the
famous garden which he built and adorned at Cuarnavaca. After spending
the wealth acquired from the _bonanza_ of Tasco, he started off in
search of new adventures and a new fortune. Being again successful, he
made Toluca the beneficiary of his princely liberality. The celebrated
Cathedral of that city, and all its ornaments, are the proofs of his
munificence. When his third fortune was exhausted, the fickle goddess
forsook him, and he who had three times been raised from nothing to the
condition of a millionaire, came in his old age to the archbishop for
relief from his poverty. This relief he obtained by selling the jewels
he had once bestowed upon the Church. Such often are the vicissitudes
in the life of a successful miner. I can not notice here the many
interesting objects gathered as I would wish to do, nor have I space
for a description of the beautiful mountain scenery about Toluca.
MIDDLE STATES OF MEXICO.
The middle states of Mexico, Guanajuata, Zacatecas, Durango, and San
Luis, are deserving of a more extended notice than my limited space
will permit. There is little of war or romance to recount in the
history of any of them. Their story is made up of notices of silver
mines, and times of great _bonanzas_ and cattle-raising. Here the
population is mostly white, made up of the hardy peasantry from Biscay.
The Indians on the high table-lands were too hardy to be reduced to
slavery: the result is the same here as in Chili. The two races have
not extensively intermixed, as the Indians were driven northward,
where, for a period of three hundred years, they have, in a measure,
maintained their independence, and have so much improved in the art of
war that they are able to return again and fight for the homes of their
ancestors. The white inhabitants of these states are more cleanly in
their habits, and more industrious than the Southern people. The little
state of Queretaro has little to boast but its agriculture, but to the
north of it is a country of mines and pasturage.
There was formerly great rivalry between the states of Guanajuato and
Zacatecas on the ground of their mining successes. Each in turn has had
its season of boasting, for it has happened that, in those years when
Guanajuato was most prosperous, Zacatecas was not in _bonanza_, and
_vice versa_. When I was first in Mexico, San Luz and San Luce, at
Guanajuato, were in _bonanza_, with divers others; and out of
$300,000 in silver bars brought down to the city of Mexico, nearly ten
per cent. of gold was extracted. But now both these _bonanzas_ have
given out, and the annual product of silver in the State of Guanajuato
has fallen off over $2,000,000, while the mines of Zacatecas are in a
most flourishing condition, as is shown by the large sum of $1,200,000
being demanded by government for renewing the lease of the mint at
Zacatecas.
Fresnillo is the most flourishing of the mines of Zacatecas. This mine
was formerly considered of little value. Among its advantages is an
American manager, who for many years has aided in the direction of its
affairs. On my return from Mexico, I found the road up the Perote
covered with wagons laden with portions of a monster steam-engine, the
fifth that was to be employed to pump the water from this mine. It
seems incredible that so large a sum as $1,000,000 should be required
for the freight alone of this new machinery. But, after I had become
familiar with the vast scale on which every thing is conducted at a
large silver mine, where millions appear as the small dust of the
balance, I can credit what my readers might think improbable.[75]
I have often spoken of the peculiarities of peasant life in the country
and of the _peons_ of the cities. But there is another phase of humble
life to be considered--the social state of the mine laborer. Like all
men whose wages are very irregular, and subject to the fluctuations
which follow mining speculations, they themselves become irregular in
their lives. They have all heard of the many instances of persons of as
humble condition as themselves accidentally falling upon a princely
fortune, and they know, too, what a miraculous change such a discovery
makes in the social condition of a _peon_, for every miner in
Zacatecas knows the homely distich:
"Had the metals not been so rich at San Bernabe,
Ibarra would not have wed the daughter of Virey."[76]
In addition to scraps and snatches of songs, the mining laborers have
their _romances_, which are as wild as the _yarns_ of the sailor, and
have for their almost universal theme the miraculous acquisition and
loss of a fortune. The hero possesses princely wealth to-day, though
yesterday he was suffering for food, and to-morrow he will be again
bereft of all by the fickle turns that Fortune makes in the wheel of
destiny. The wildest of our romances never come up to many incidents
that have occurred in their own mine; and when they attempt fiction, it
is on the pattern of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. I do verily
believe that all that class of Arabian tales are but the reproduction
of the _romances_ from the Oriental gold-washings.
The most important mines in the State of San Luis Potosi are those near
Cuatorce. In the midst of bleak and precipitous mountain ridges is the
village of Cuatorce, from which a circuitous mountain road leads to the
entrance of the mining shafts, in which more wonderful things have
occurred than in the wildest of the "romances." The story of Padre
Flores is a familiar one, but will bear repeating.
PADRE FLORES.--CUATORCE.
The padre, being tired of the idle life of a pauper priest, bought, for
a small sum, the claim of some still more needy adventurer. After
following his small vein a little way, he came to a small cavern
containing the ore in a state of decomposition. This, in California,
would be called a "rotten vein." With all the difficulties to be
encountered in obtaining a fair value for mineral in a crude state, the
poor priest realized from his adventure over $3,000,000, which was
considered a very fair fortune for an unmitred ecclesiastic.
The Mineral Report, mentioned in the last note, which is so full on the
subject Fresnillo, insists that it is a continuation of the formation
of Cuatorce and the other mines of San Luis. The mountains at Cuatorce
are more dreary, bleak, and barren than in any other of the principal
mining districts, as it is more exposed to the storms and tempests from
the northeast and from the ocean. It was in this State of San Luis
Potosi that Dr. Gardner's quicksilver mine was alleged to exist, and in
the ineffectual efforts made to determine its whereabouts our
government has become quite familiar with the location of all the
worked mines of this state. The mines upon the mountains of Cuatorce
are said to have been discovered in 1778 by a negro fiddler, who, being
compelled to camp out on his way home from a dance, built a fire upon
what proved to be an outcrop of a vein, and, in consequence, found in
the morning, among the embers, a piece of virgin silver. It is a
doubtful question among those who are anxious about trifles whether the
name _Potosi_ given to this mine, owes its origin to the similarity
between the mode of its discovery to that of the celebrated mines of
that name in South America, or to the vast amount of silver at one time
taken from it.
Guanajuato, when it yielded its six millions a year of silver, besides
a fair supply of gold, was one of the most important States in the
republic. With every successful speculation, new adventurers were found
to invest their capital in resuming the working of abandoned mines,
until at last men have become bold enough to undertake, for the third
time, the draining of the great shaft of the Valenciana, so famous in
the last century. When I was last in Mexico that undertaking was
reported to have been accomplished. This mine is on a more magnificent
scale than even the Real del Monte. Its central shaft alone cost a
million of dollars; and though steam power can not be used, yet it is
so dry that horse windlasses can keep it clear of water. Its
abandonment in every instance has been in consequence of some
insurrectionary chief setting the works of the mine on fire, and not
from any deficiency in its product of silver. When I was in Mexico, so
little progress had been made in restoring the mine that it was not
thought worth visiting. But the most sanguine hopes were entertained
that it would again be as productive as in the times when its abundant
riches secured for its owner the title of Marquis of Valenciana, though
he had worked with his own hands on the shaft which afterward yielded
him its millions.
THE MINE OF LOS RAYAS.
Second in importance among the old mines of Guanajuato is _Los Rayas_.
Its history presents a new feature in the mining system of Mexico, not
before mentioned, but which is important to a right understanding of
the operation of the mining code. The right of discovery gives title to
two hundred _varas_ along the mine, and to two hundred _varas_ (about
500 feet) in depth. The consequence of this limitation is, that when a
very rich claim is made, there immediately springs up a contest to get
below it, and to cut off the lucky discoverer from the lower part of
his expected fortune, and he has no means of avoiding such a result but
by driving his shaft downward until he reaches a point below his first
two hundred _varas_, which entitles him to claim another section
downward.
This principle is strikingly illustrated in the case of the famous mine
of the priest Flores at Cuatorce, which he blasphemously named "the
Purse of God the Father,"[77] where there are marks of divers attempts
being made to undermine him, though without success. But the case is a
different one when the _bonanza_ is upon a high ridge, and it can be
undermined by drifting in from a lower level. Then commences a lively
contest to determine who can dig the fastest, and make the most rapid
progress in this contest of mining and countermining.
The Marquis de los Rayas owes his title and his princely fortune of
$11,000,000 to a successful contest of this character. The Santa Amita
was in _bonanza_, yielding an ore so pregnant with gold that the crude
mass often sold for its weight in silver.
DEEP MINING.
Contests of this kind are very different from those which used to take
place in California some years ago, when twenty feet square was marked
off upon the top of a ridge, through which the claimant had to sink his
shaft to the base rock on which the gold was supposed to be deposited.
When the rock was reached, it was often found difficult to keep the
lines that had been marked off on the surface, particularly when the
lead grew richer as it approached the border of the claim.
Controversies were frequent, and frequently resulted in subterranean
quarrels and fights, and, of course, ended in superterranean lawsuits.
But the Mexican rival parties were seldom near enough for a fight, and
the quarrel ended, as it began, in a contest to determine who could dig
the fastest.
Another peculiar feature of deep mining is the construction of the main
shafts. A description of the method of construction of one of these I
take from Ward's Mexico,[78] a book that is otherwise of little value
to a person seeking for information on the subject of mines at
Guanajuata, so great has been the revolution there in a few years in
the condition of mining affairs: "I know few sights more interesting
than the operation of blasting in the shafts of Los Rayas. After each
quarryman (_barretero_) has undermined the portion of rock allotted to
him, he is drawn up to the surface; the ropes belonging to the
horse-windlasses (_malacates_) are coiled up, so as to leave every
thing clear below, and a man descends, whose business it is to fire the
slow matches communicating with the mines below.
"As his chance of escaping the effects of the explosion consists in
being drawn up with such rapidity as to be placed beyond the reach of
the fragments of rock that are projected into the air, the lightest
_malacate_ is prepared for his use, and two horses are attached to it,
selected for their swiftness and courage, and are called the horses of
_pegador_. The man is let down slowly, carrying with him a light and a
small rope, one end of which is held by one of the overseers, who is
stationed at the mouth of the shaft. A breathless silence is observed
until the signal is given from below by pulling the cord of
communication, when the two men by whom the horses are previously held
release their heads, and they dash off at full speed until they are
stopped either by the noise of the first explosion, or by seeing from
the quantity of cord wound round the cylinder of the _malacate_ that
the _pegador_ is already raised to a height of sixty or seventy _varas_
[Spanish yards], and is consequently beyond the reach of danger."
The author then goes on to enumerate the risks that attend this calling
of _pegador_, and the consequent high wages that have to be paid to
persons who undertake this perilous office, all of which accidents and
adventures must be familiar to those of my readers who have paid any
attention to the business of blasting rocks; and as his hairbreadth
escapes have nothing in them remarkable, we may conclude this notice of
Los Rayas by adding his statement that the king's fifth from this mine,
from 1556 to his time, amounted to the snug sum of $17,365,000. He
gives only the sum reported, and makes no calculation for the large
sums out of which the king was annually cheated at all the mines. That
my reader may understand how a sum so apparently incredible as five or
eight times seventeen millions of dollars could be taken out of a
single mine, he must recollect that Los Rayas was a most productive
mine shortly after the Conquest, and that for a century or two it was
comparatively of little value, until Mr. Jose Sardaneta undertook the
undermining of the rich mine of Santa Amita in 1740, and that afterward
the rich product of the lower levels of the Santa Amita are included in
this immense sum.
INDIANS AND SOLDIERS.
There is too much sameness in the details of the histories of the
various other important mines of this State and of those in the
adjoining State of Durango to justify the lengthening out this chapter,
and I will conclude it with giving the substance of a statement I heard
the American gentleman make on the subject of Indian depredations in
the very centre of the republic, showing the great inconvenience
suffered in consequence of the state of insecurity in which the people
constantly live. A party of their own Indians, a most degraded band of
cowardly vagabonds, that lived not a great way from the city, concluded
to personify a company of northern savages, in order more successfully
to plunder the inhabitants. With shoutings, these vagabonds rushed into
the houses of the people, who were so paralyzed by the very sight of
Indians in a hostile attitude, that, without resistance, they suffered
them to plunder whatever came within their reach which tempted their
cupidity or lust. At length, becoming satiated with liquor and
champagne that they had taken from a carrier, they had to retire and
camp out for the night. In their retreat they were pursued by a captain
and soldiers of the regular army, who, being more numerous than the
Indians, exhibited a great deal of courage until they came in sight of
the savages, when, all at once, it was concluded to encamp for the
night, and to resume the pursuit the next day, when the Indians would
be at such a distance that they would not disturb their pursuers by
their whooping.
[75] By reference to a long and able paper on the mines in the
hill of Proano (Fresnillo), it appears that one half of the cost
of four pumping-engines already in operation in that mine was the
freight from Vera Cruz to the mine.
[76] This translation is bad enough, but no worse than the
original.
[77] This will sound to Protestant readers something like
horrible blasphemy; but it must be borne in mind that God the
Father of the Catholics is an entirely different idea from the
spiritual God whom we worship. The devout Protestant who
recognizes but one Being worthy of adoration, veneration, and
worship, never ventures to mention any of the names by which He
is known but with the profoundest reverence. The Catholic, on the
other hand, has a host of objects which he deems worthy of
adoration, and seems to have cheapened the article by multiplying
it. His senses are all exercised in his peculiar kind of worship,
and, as a natural consequence, they are apt to conclude that the
Almighty enjoys those exhibitions that give them the greatest
pleasure. They worship him by performing a pantomime of the life
and suffering of Christ, which is called the mass, and seek to
propitiate him by offering the body of his Son in sacrifice. They
bestow upon God gifts of jewels and of gold; and as he passes
through their streets in the form of a wafer, as they believe,
the soldiers present arms, beat the drum, and discharge their
cannon, as to an earthly prince. Though our Saviour (_Santo
Christo_) heads the calendar of intercessors between God and
man, he is seldom invoked, though they often honor him by naming
their children after him. As they have conferred upon a multitude
of their saints the supernatural powers of God, they have
necessarily brought God himself down to earth. If I might be
pardoned the expression, I should say that they treat him and his
well-beloved Son with a loving intimacy. The worship of the
Catholics is substantially materialism, more or less gross,
according to its distance from or its proximity to Protestantism.
There is no blasphemy, according to their system, in naming their
shops after the Holy Ghost, a horse-stable after "the Precious
Blood," though I could never hear them mentioned or see them
without having my Protestant notions shocked, while I equally
shocked their feelings by refusing to kneel to the Host, and
slipping out of the way to avoid it. Nor could I exhibit the
least reverence to their religious emblems without committing
what in me would be an act of idolatry, the two systems being so
diametrically opposite that one can not go a step toward the
other without breaking over a fundamental doctrine of his own
belief. God is an invisible Spirit, says the Protestant. God is a
Spirit, answers the Catholic, but he daily assumes the form of a
wafer, and traverses our streets, and in that form we most
commonly worship him. Such is the religious antagonism that will
ever be found in the world while man remains what he now is, ever
divided between mentalism and materialism. Forms and names often
differ, but these are the two ideas into which all the religious
systems of the world resolve themselves, although abortive
attempts are often made to combine them.
[78] Vol. ii. p. 452.