Visit to the Mining Town of Jesus-Maria -- Critical Roads -- Losing
Speculations -- Mine of Santa Juliana -- Curious mining Operations
-- Different Modes of working the Ore -- The Crushing-mill, etc. --
_Barras de Plata_ -- Value of Bullion -- The Silver Trade -- Return
to Chihuahua -- Resumption of the regular Narrative -- Curious
Wholesales -- Money Table -- Redundancy of Copper Coin -- City of
Chihuahua and its Peculiarities -- Ecclesiastical Architecture --
Hidalgo and His Monument -- Public Works, and their present
Declension -- _Fête_ in honor of Iturbide -- Illiberality towards
Americans -- Shopping Mania -- Anti-Masonic _Auto de Fe_.
Before resuming my regular narrative, I trust the reader will pardon
me for introducing here a brief account of an excursion which I made
in the fall of the year 1835, to the mining town of Jesus-Maria, one
of the most important mineral districts in the department of
Chihuahua, situated about a hundred and fifty miles west of the city,
in the very heart of the great Cordilleras.[123]
I had long been desirous of visiting some of the mining establishments
of Mexico, and seeing a favorable opportunity of embarking in a
profitable enterprise, I set out from Chihuahua on the 15th of
October. My party consisted of but one American comrade, with {106} a
Mexican muleteer--and three or four mules freighted with specie to be
employed in the _silver trade_: a rather scanty convoy for a route
subject to the inroads both of savages and robbers. For
transportation, [Pg179] we generally pack our specie in sacks made of
raw beef hide, which shrinks upon drying, and thus presses the
contents so closely as to prevent friction. A pair of these packages,
usually containing between one and two thousand dollars each,
constitutes an ordinary mule-load on the mountain routes.
The road in this direction leads through the roughest mountain passes;
and, in some places, it winds so close along the borders of
precipices, that by a single misstep an animal might be precipitated
several hundred feet. Mules, however, are very surefooted; and will
often clamber along the most craggy cliffs with nearly as much
security as the goat. I was shown the projecting edge of a rock over
which the road had formerly passed. This shelf was perhaps thirty feet
in length by only two or three in width. The road which leads into the
town of Jesus-Maria from the west side of the mountain is also
extremely perilous and steep, and seems almost to overhang the houses
below. Heavily laden mules have sometimes slipped off the track, and
tumbled headlong into the town. This place is even more pent up
between ridges than Zacatecas: the valley is narrower and the
mountains much higher; while, as is the case with that remarkable
city, the houses are {107} sometimes built in successive tiers, one
above another; the _azoteas_ of the lower ones forming the yard of
those above.
The first mine I visited consisted of an immense horizontal shaft cut
several hundred feet into a hill-side, a short distance below the town
of Jesus-Maria, upon which the proprietors had already sunk, in the
brief space of one year, the enormous sum of one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars! Such is often the fate of the speculative miner,
whose vocation is closely allied to gaming, and equally precarious.
[Pg180]
The most important mine of Jesus-Maria at this time was one called
Santa Juliana, which had been the means of alternately making and
sinking several splendid fortunes. This mine had then reached a depth
of between eight and nine hundred feet, and the operations were still
tending downwards. The materials were drawn up by mule power applied
to a windlass: but as the rope attached to it only extended half way
down, another windlass had been erected at the distance of about four
hundred feet from the mouth of the cavern, which was also worked by
mules, and drew the ores, etc., from the bottom. On one occasion, as I
was standing near the aperture of this great pit, watching the ascent
of the windlass-rope, expecting every moment the appearance of the
large leathern bucket which they employ for drawing up the minerals as
well as the rubbish and water[124] from the bottom, {108} what should
greet my vision but a mule, puffing and writhing, firmly bound to a
huge board constructed for the purpose, and looking about as demure
upon the whole as a sheep under the shears. On being untied, the
emancipated brute suddenly sprang to his feet, and looked around him
at the bright scenes of the upper world with as much astonishment as
Rip Van Winkle may be supposed to have felt after waking up from his
twenty years' sleep.
The ore which is obtained from these mines, if sufficiently rich to
justify the operation, is transferred to the smelting furnaces, where
the pure metal is melted down and extracted from the virgin fossil.
If, on the contrary, the ore is deemed of inferior quality, it is then
submitted to the process of amalgamation.
[Illustration: Mule emerging from a mine]
[Illustration: Still Hunting]
{109} The _moliendas_, or crushing-mills (_arrastres_, as called at
some mines), employed for the purpose of grinding the [Pg183] ores,
are somewhat singular machines. A circular (or rather annular) cistern
of some twenty or thirty feet in diameter is dug in the earth, and the
sides as well as the bottom are lined with hewn stone of the hardest
quality. Transversely through an upright post which turns upon its
axis in the centre of the plan, passes a shaft of wood, at each end of
which are attached by cords one or two grinding-stones with smooth
flat surfaces, which are dragged (by mules fastened to the extremities
of the shaft) slowly around upon the bottom of the cistern, into which
the ore is thrown after being pounded into small pieces. It is here
ground, with the addition of water, into an impalpable mortar, by the
constant friction of the dragging stones against the sides and bottom
of the cistern. A suitable quantity of quicksilver is perfectly mixed
with the mortar; to which are added some muriates, sulphates, and
other chemical substances, to facilitate the amalgamation. The
compound is then piled up in small heaps, and not disturbed again
until this process is supposed to be complete, when it is transferred
to the washing-machine. Those I have observed are very simple,
consisting of a kind of stone tub, into which a stream of water is
made to flow constantly, so as to carry off all the lighter matter,
which is kept stirred up by an upright studded with pegs, that
revolves in the centre, while the amalgamated metals sink {110} to the
bottom. Most of the quicksilver is then pressed out, and the silver
submitted to a burning process, by which the remaining portion of
mercury is expelled.
The silver which is taken from the furnace, generally contains an
intermixture of gold, averaging from ten to thirty per cent.; but what
is extracted by amalgamation is mostly separated in the washing. While
in a liquid state, the gold, from its greater specific gravity, mostly
settles to the bottom: yet it usually retains a considerable alloy of
silver. The [Pg184] compound is distinguished by the name of
_oroche_. The main portion of the silver generally retains too little
gold to make it worth separating.
Every species of silver is moulded into _barras_ or ingots, weighing
from fifty to eighty pounds each, and usually worth between one and
two thousand dollars. These are assayed by an authorized agent of the
government, and stamped with their weight and character, which enables
the holder to calculate their value by a very simple rule. When the
bullion is thus stamped, it constitutes a species of currency, which
is much safer for remittances than coin. In case of robbery, the
_barras_ are easily identified, provided the robbers have not had time
to mould them into some other form. For this reason, people of wealth
frequently lay up their funds in ingots; and the cellars of some of
the _ricos_ of the South, are often found teeming with large
quantities of them, presenting the appearance of a winter's supply of
firewood.
{111} As the charge for parting the gold and silver at the Mexican
mints, is generally from one to two dollars, and coinage about fifty
cents, per pound, this assayed bullion yields a profit upon its
current value of nearly ten per cent. at the United States Mint; but,
if unassayed, it generally produces an advance of about double that
amount upon the usual cost at the mines. The exportation of bullion,
however, is prohibited, except by special license from the general
government. Still a large quantity is exported in this way, and
considerable amounts smuggled out through some of the ports.
A constant and often profitable business in the 'silver trade' is
carried on at these mines. As the miners rarely fail being in need of
ready money, they are generally obliged to sell their bullion for
coin, and that often at a great sacrifice, so as to procure available
means to prosecute their mining [Pg185] operations. To profit by this
trade, as is already mentioned, was a principal object of my present
visit. Having concluded my business transactions, and partially
gratified my curiosity, I returned to Chihuahua, where I arrived,
November 24, 1835, without being molested either by robbers or
Indians, though the route is sometimes infested by both these classes
of independent gentry.
But, as it is now high time I should put an end to this digression, I
will once more resume my narrative, where it was interrupted at my
arrival in Chihuahua, on the first of October, 1839.
{112} It is usual for each trader, upon his arrival in that city, to
engage a store-room, and to open and exhibit his goods, as well for
the purpose of disposing of them at wholesale as retail. His most
profitable custom is that of the petty country merchants from the
surrounding villages. Some traders, it is true, continue in the retail
business for a season or more, yet the greater portion are transient
dealers, selling off at wholesale as soon as a fair bargain is
offered.
The usual mode of selling by the lot in Chihuahua is somewhat
singular. All such cottons as calicoes and other prints, bleached,
brown and blue domestics both plain and twilled, stripes, checks,
etc., are rated at two or three _reales_[125] per _vara_, without the
least reference to quality or cost, and the 'general assortment' at 60
to 100 per cent. upon the bills of cost, according to the demand. The
_varage_ is [Pg186] usually estimated by adding eight per cent. to
the yardage, but the _vara_ being thirty-three inches (nearly), the
actual difference is more than nine. In these sales, cloths--{113}
indeed all measurable goods, except ribands and the like, sometimes
enter at the _varage_ rate. I have heard of some still more curious
contracts in these measurement sales, particularly in Santa Fé, during
the early periods of the American trade. Everything was sometimes
rated by the vara--not only all textures, but even hats, cutlery,
trinkets, and so on! In such cases, very singular disputes would
frequently arise as to the mode of measuring some particular articles:
for instance, whether pieces of riband should be measured in bulk, or
unrolled, and yard by yard; looking-glasses, cross or lengthwise;
pocket-knives, shut or open; writing-paper, in the ream, in the quire,
or by the single sheet; and then, whether the longer or shorter way of
the paper; and so of many others.
Before the end of October, 1839, I had an opportunity of selling out
my stock of goods to a couple of English merchants, which relieved me
from the delays, to say nothing of the inconveniences attending a
retail trade: such, for instance, as the accumulation of copper coin,
which forms almost the exclusive currency in petty dealings. Some
thousands of dollars' worth are frequently accumulated upon the hands
of the merchant in this way, and as the copper of one department is
worthless in another, except for its intrinsic value, which is seldom
more than ten per cent. of the nominal value, the holders are
subjected to a great deal of trouble and annoyance.
With regard to the city, there is but little to {114} be said that is
either very new or unusually interesting. When compared with Santa Fé
and all the towns of the North, Chihuahua might indeed be pronounced a
magnificent place; but, compared with the nobler cities of _tierra
afuera_, it sinks [Pg187] into insignificance. According to Capt.
Pike, the city of Chihuahua was founded in 1691. The ground-plan is
much more regular than that of Santa Fé, while a much greater degree
of elegance and classic taste has been exhibited in the style of the
architecture of many buildings; for though the bodies be of _adobe_,
all the best houses are cornered with hewn stone, and the doors and
windows are framed in the same. The streets, however, remain nearly in
the same state as Nature formed them, with the exception of a few
roughly-paved side-walks. Although situated about a hundred miles east
of the main chain of the Mexican Cordilleras, Chihuahua is surrounded
on every side by detached ridges of mountains, but none of them of any
great magnitude. The elevation of the city above the ocean is between
four and five thousand feet; its latitude is 28° 36′; and its entire
population numbers about ten thousand souls.
The most splendid edifice in Chihuahua is the principal church, which
is said to equal in architectural grandeur anything of the sort in the
republic. The steeples, of which there is one at each front corner,
rise over a hundred feet above the azotea. They are composed of very
fancifully-carved columns; and {115} in appropriate niches of the
frontispiece, which is also an elaborate piece of sculpture, are to be
seen a number of statues, as large as life, the whole forming a
complete representation of Christ and the twelve Apostles. This church
was built about a century ago, by contributions levied upon the mines
(particularly those of Santa Eulalia, fifteen or twenty miles from the
city), which paid over a per centage on all the metal extracted
therefrom; a _medio_, I believe, being levied upon each _marco_ of
eight ounces. In this way, about a million of dollars was raised and
expended in some thirty years, the time employed in the construction
of the building. It is a curious fact, however, that, notwithstanding
the enormous sums of money expended [Pg188] in outward embellishments,
there is not a church from thence southward, perhaps, where the
interior arrangements bear such striking marks of poverty and neglect.
If, however, we are not dazzled by the sight of those costly
decorations for which the churches of Southern Mexico are so much
celebrated, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the turrets are
well provided with bells, a fact of which every person who visits
Chihuahua very soon obtains auricular demonstration. One, in
particular, is so large and sonorous that it has frequently been
heard, so I am informed, at the distance of twenty-five miles.
A little below the _Plaza Mayor_ stands the ruins (as they may be
called) of San Francisco--the mere skeleton of another great church
{116} of hewn-stone, which was commenced by the Jesuits previous to
their expulsion in 1767, but never finished. By the outlines still
traceable amid the desolation which reigns around, it would appear
that the plan of this edifice was conceived in a spirit of still
greater magnificence than the Parroquia which I have been describing.
The abounding architectural treasures that are mouldering and ready to
tumble to the ground, bear sufficient evidence that the mind which had
directed its progress was at once bold, vigorous and comprehensive.
This dilapidated building has since been converted into a sort of
state prison, particularly for the incarceration of distinguished
prisoners. It was here that the principals of the famous Texan Santa
Fé Expedition were confined, when they passed through the place, on
their way to the city of Mexico.[126] This edifice has also acquired
considerable celebrity as having received within its gloomy embraces
several of the most distinguished patriots, who were taken prisoners
during the first infant struggles for Mexican independence. [Pg189]
Among these was the illustrious ecclesiastic, Don Miguel Hidalgo y
Costilla, who made the first declaration at the village of Dolores,
September 16, 1810.[127] He was taken prisoner in March, 1811, some
time after his total defeat at Guadalaxara; and being brought to
Chihuahua, he was shot on the 30th of July following, in a little
square back of the prison, where a plain white monument of hewn stone
{117} has been erected to his memory. It consists of an octagon base
of about twenty-five feet in diameter, upon which rises a square,
unornamented pyramid to the height of about thirty feet. The monument
indeed is not an unapt emblem of the purity and simplicity of the
curate's character.
Among the few remarkable objects which attract the attention of the
traveller is a row of columns supporting a large number of stupendous
arches which may be seen from the heights, long before approaching the
city from the north. This is an aqueduct of considerable magnitude
which conveys water from the little river of Chihuahua, to an eminence
above the town, whence it is passed through a succession of pipes to
the main public square, where it empties itself into a large stone
cistern; and by this method the city is supplied with water. This and
other public works to be met with in Chihuahua, and in the southern
cities, are glorious remnants of the prosperous times of the Spanish
empire. No improvements on so exalted a scale have ever been made
under the republican government. In fact, everything in this benighted
country now seems to be on the decline, and the plain honest citizen
of the old school is not unfrequently heard giving vent to his
feelings by ejaculating "_¡Ojalá por los dias felices del Rey!_"--Oh,
for the happy days of the King! In short, there can be no doubt, that
the common people enjoyed more ease--more protection against the
[Pg190] savages--more {118} security in their rights and
property--more _liberty_, in truth, under the Spanish dynasty than at
present.
No better evidence can be found of the extensive operations which have
been carried on in this the greatest mining district of Northern
Mexico, than in the little mountains of _scoria_ which are found in
the suburbs of the city. A great number of poor laborers make a
regular business of hammering to pieces these metallic excrescences,
from which they collect silver enough to buy their daily bread. An
opinion has often been expressed by persons well acquainted with the
subject, that a fair business might be done by working this same
scoria over again. There are still in operation several furnaces in
the city, where silver ores extracted from the mines of the
surrounding mountains are smelted. There is also a rough mint in
Chihuahua (as there is indeed in all the mining departments), yet most
of its silver and all of its gold have been coined in the cities
further south.
When I arrived at Chihuahua, in 1839, a great fête had just come off
for the double purpose of celebrating the anniversary of the Emperor
Iturbide's birth day (Sept. 27, 1783), and that of his triumphal
entrance into the city of Mexico in 1821. It will be remembered, that,
after Mexico had been struggling for independence several years,
General Iturbide, who had remained a faithful officer of the crown,
and an active agent in persecuting the champions of Mexican liberty,
finding {119} himself, about the close of 1820, at the head of a large
division of the royal army sent against the patriot Guerrero, suddenly
turned over his whole force to the support of the republican cause,
and finally succeeded in destroying the last vestige of Spanish
authority in Mexico. How he was afterwards crowned emperor, and
subsequently [Pg191] dethroned, outlawed by a public decree and
eventually executed, is all matter of history.[128] But it is not
generally known, I believe, that this unfortunate soldier has since
received the honors of the Father of the Republic, a dignity to which
he was probably as much entitled as any one else--absurd though the
adoption of such a hero as the 'champion of liberty,' may appear to
'republicans of the Jefferson school.' A _grande fête d'hilarité_
takes place annually, in honor of his political canonization, which
'comes off' at the date already mentioned. To this great ball,
however, no Americans were invited, with the exception of a
Mexicanized denizen or two, whose invitation tickets informed the
_honored party_ that the price of admission to this famous feast,--a
ball given by the governor and other magnates of the land, in honor of
the hero of independence,--was twenty-five dollars.
Balls or reunions of this kind, however, seem not as frequent in
Chihuahua as in New Mexico: and to those we hear of, claiming the
title of 'fashionable,' Americans are very rarely invited. There is,
in fact, but little social intercourse between foreigners and the
natives, {120} except in a business way, or with a certain class of
the former, at the gambling-table. This want of hospitable feelings is
one of the worst traits in the character of the Chihuahueños, and when
placed in contrast with the kind and courteous treatment those who
visit the United States invariably experience from the lawgivers of
fashion among us, their illiberality will appear a hundred fold more
ungracious. These exclusive laws are the more severely felt in
Chihuahua, because in that city there are no _cafés_, [Pg192] nor
reading rooms, nor in short any favorite public resorts, except of a
gambling character, at which gentlemen can meet to lounge or amuse
themselves.
Besides the cock-pit, the gaming-table, and the _Alameda_, which is
the popular promenade for the wealthy and the indolent, one of the
most favorite pastimes of the females generally is shopping; and the
most fashionable time for this is by candle-light, after they have
partaken of their chocolate and their _cigarritos_. The streets and
shops are literally filled from dusk till nine or ten o'clock; and
many a time have I seen the counter of a store actually lined till a
late hour, with the fairest and most fashionable señoritas of the
city. On such occasions it is not a little painful as well as
troublesome to be compelled to keep a strict eye to the rights of
property, not that the dealers are all dishonest, but because there
never fail to be some present who are painfully afflicted with the
self-appropriating mania, {121} even among the fairest-looking
señoritas. This, with other purposes no less culpable, has no doubt
tended to establish the custom of night-shopping.
It may already be generally known perhaps, that the predominant party,
in Mexico, (and particularly in the North), is decidedly anti-masonic.
During my stay in Chihuahua I had an opportunity to test their
antipathy for that mysterious brotherhood. This was evinced in the
seizure of a dozen or two cotton handkerchiefs, which, unknown to
myself, happened to bear the stamp of the 'masonic carpet.' These
obnoxious articles having attracted the attention of some lynx-eyed
friars, one day, much to my consternation, my store was suddenly
invaded by the alcalde and some ecclesiastics. The handkerchiefs were
seized without ceremony, and by an _auto de fe_, condemned to be
publicly burned.