XV.
MEXICO AND ITS MINES.
THE USES OF SILVER.—COIN AND ITS ABUNDANCE.—PUZZLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMISTS.—WONDERFUL SKILL OF THE SILVER-WORKERS.—THE SILVER PRODUCT.—THE MINES OF MEXICO.—THEIR EXTENT AND RICHNESS.—GUANAJUATO AND ITS MINES.—THEVETA MADRE.—VISIT TO THE SERRANO MINE.—UNDERGROUND PYROTECHNICS.—THEVETA GRANDE.—THE PACHUCA MINE.—AN OFFER TO THE KING—THE GROUND PAVED WITH SILVER.—SULPHUR MINERS.—ASCENT OF A MEXICAN MOUNTAIN.
One of the most important of the metals is the one known as silver. All the civilized nations use it for the manufacture of coin as a circulating medium, and the consumption of the metal for this purpose alone is very great. Political economists have busied themselves with the problem of the immense annual waste from the wearing away of gold and silver, but thus far they have met with no success. For large amounts, bank notes—either of the government or otherwise—are in use, and have many advantages over coin. But for small amounts, gold and silver have not been replaced, and there is little probability that they will be. Their jingling makes an agreeable sound, but unfortunately it reduces the weight of the coin, and wears away, particle after particle, which cannot be saved by any process yet invented.
Silver has long been used in the Arts, and its whiteness renders it particularly desirable for this purpose. Of late years, it has taken a very prominent place, especially in America, and the productions of the silver-workers border on the marvelous. At the Philadelphia Exhibition, the display of silver ware in the American section was such as to attract large crowds at all hours when the place was open to the public, and there were few visitors who did not confess themselvesastonished at what they beheld. There was an endless variety of silver work, from very small articles up to very large ones. Down to a few years ago, the English and other people over the Atlantic had almost a monopoly of silver work, and were justly entitled to a claim for superiority. But at present, the American workmen are equal to any competition, and some of the ornamental pieces they have recently turned out cannot be surpassed anywhere else in the world.
The impetus given to this branch of Art is due, to some extent, to the abundance of silver in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, and the desire to make as much use of it as possible. Some have feared that the opening of so many silver mines would cheapen the metal, and cause a great shrinkage in the value of that now on hand, but up to the present, no such result has been reached. Silver has taken the place of gold, for many uses, and if matters go on in the future, as they have gone in the past, the demand will long continue to equal the supply.
One of the foremost silver-producing countries in the world is Mexico, and its fame extends a long distance into the past. The metal was known to the ancient Aztecs, and was worked by them, with exquisite skill, into numerous ornamental and useful articles, but among the vast mineral treasures of Montezuma, the quantity of silver was small compared with that of gold, and gave little promise of the argentiferous mines of his territories.
THE SPANISH MINERS.
The Spaniards had a keen eye for valuable things, and no sooner did they find what the country contained in mineral wealth, than they proceeded at once to develop it.
They opened mines wherever there were indications of silver, and so fast did they progress that it was estimated, at the beginning of this century, that operations were going on in from four thousand to five thousand localities, which might all be included in about three thousand distinct mines. These were scattered along the range of the Cordilleras in eight groups, the principal of which, known as the central group, contains the famous mining districts of Guanajuato, Catoree,Zacatecas, and Sombrerete, and furnished more than half of all the silver produced in Mexico.
The great vein, orVeta Madre, is referred to elsewhere, and is one of the most remarkable deposits anywhere known. It is contained chiefly in clay slate, and crosses the southern slope of the hills in a northwest and southeast direction, dipping with the slates (the range which it follows) from forty-five to forty eight degrees toward the southwest. The width averages a hundred and fifty feet, and the depth is unknown. It has been traced about twelve miles, but its most productive portion thus far, or rather, the portion operated, is only about a tenth of that distance.
The mines of Zacatecas, opened in 1548, are also upon a single vein, called the Veta Grande, averaging in thickness about thirty feet. The formation is of green stone and clay slate, the former the most productive. The veins of Catoree are in limestone, supposed to be of carboniferous age.
THE ORE IN THE MINES.
The greatest proportion of silver in every mining district of Mexico is obtained from the sulphuret of silver, an ore of gray color, disseminated through the quartz matrix in minute particles, and more or less combined with other metals. The other varieties of argentiferous ores are numerous, but comparatively small in quantity; they are the chloride of silver, ruby silver, native silver, argentiferous pyrites, and argentiferous galena.
The comparative quantities of these, at the different mines, is very variable, and few of the miners are able to determine them with exactness. Notwithstanding the antiquity of the silver mining business in Mexico, the processes which are employed are still far from perfect, and greatly behind those of the Nevada and other mines. The ore in Mexico is so rich that it has not been considered worth while to practice any economy or to bring science to the miner’s aid.
Col. Albert S. Evans, who made a journey through Mexico, a few years ago, gives a graphic account of a visit to the Serrano mine, in the vicinity of Guanajuato. He was invited, with several others, to a pyrotechnic display in the mine, and thus describes it:
THE SERRANO MINE.
“The mine is situated in the hill below the Buffa, at the upper end of the city. Five hundred men, women, and children are employed at this mine, getting out the ore, breaking it up, and sorting it. The men generally work in small gangs, for a share of the sales of the ore they take out. The amount of silver mined, weekly, is about five thousand dollars, and the expenses one thousand dollars, leaving a net profit of four thousand dollars. The great tiro is about nine hundred and fifty feet in depth.
A horizontal tunnel penetrates the hill from a level with the hacienda, cutting the tiro, or perpendicular shaft, at four hundred feet from the surface. This tunnel may be about fifteen hundred feet in length; a railroad track runs through it, and lying down in the cars, we were carried in to the edge of the tiro.
This tiro is thirty feet in diameter, and six sided, laid up in cement, like that at the Valenciano.
The necessity for this is seen in the fact that a rock, weighing many tons, was displaced from a station near the bottom of the shaft, a few days previous to our visit, and falling upon the miners beneath, killed and maimed a large number of them.
Standing here, four hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and six hundred feet above the bottom of the shaft, with a patch of pale blue sky far above us, and inky darkness, almost palpable to the touch, around us, and filling all the depths below, we witnessed the most wonderful scene on which we gazed in Mexico.
Men were sent up to the top of the tiro at the surface of the ground, and told to discharge rockets down it. This they did, and the hissing and explosions of the fiery messengers caused the most deafening echoes and re-echoes, while the sides of the shaft, dripping with ooze and slime, were revealed with startling distinctness by the momentary glare.
But this was nothing to what followed; balls of the fiber of the maguey, or aloe plant, three feet in diameter, and steeped in pine pitch or resin, were swung out over the mouth of theshaft, and set on fire. When the first was in full blaze, it was detached, and allowed to fall into the abyss. Like a great comet with body of molten metal, and long tail of flame, rushing on a doomed planet, the monster projectile came down from the dizzy height above us, and passing the mouth of the tunnel in which we stood, with a roar more deafening than the loudest thunder, went bounding and crashing into the depths below, illuminating everything, for a moment, with the blinding, lurid glare, followed by a darkness and silence more profound than before. As soon as the tremendous echoes which were awakened by the first, had died away, a second was sent down, and others followed in quick succession.
Most of our party were unable to control their nerves sufficiently to enable them to approach the edge and look up and down the tiro, holding by ropes to prevent them from becoming dizzy and falling headlong into the depths, but those who could do so, beheld a scene, the awful sublimity and grandeur of which beggars all the powers of language.
DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE MINE.
The remainder of the party now left, and I, in company with the superintendent, clothing myself in a miner’s suit, to keep off the water and mud, descended to the bottom of the mine, one thousand feet and more from the surface.
We went down ladder after ladder, along gallery after gallery, through chambers like great churches in size, and others in which we could not stand erect, down steps cut in the rock, and so slippery with dripping water and soft clay, as to compel us to use an iron-shod staff to support ourselves, and through many a winding turning, until we stood at the bottom of the tiro, wet through with perspiration, and trembling with exhaustion.
At the bottom of the tiro is a great pond of water, the reservoir into which all the drainings of the mine are gathered, and the buckets on the great cables, worked by themalacatesat the top, were constantly coming and going between it and the end of the tunnel six hundred feet above. These buckets will hold three to four hogsheads of water, and are made ofrawhide, in the form of an ordinary Mexican water jar. An iron ring distends the mouth of the bucket, and when the vessel descends, the wet hide flattening down allows the water to rush in, and as the lifting commences, it falls back into its original form, filled to the brim with the dirty fluid. When the bucket reaches the level of the tunnel, it is hauled into the opening, and as the cable is slackened up, it flattens down again, and the water, escaping over the rim, runs off down the side of the tunnel.
But there are still lower depths. We went down nearly two hundred feet more, and at the bottom of the last level, found men at work taking out ore. The dripping of the water at this point is very considerable, and two plans are made use of to get rid of it. A part of the water is carried up to the reservoir in pig skins on the backs of naked and sweating Indians, and a part—the larger part—is pumped up to that point by hand.
PRIMITIVE APPLIANCES FOR MINING.
The pumps are mere straight logs, thirty feet long, with a bore of three inches, and a piston and bucket, pulled and pushed, back and forth, by two stalwart Indians sitting on either side, working by main strength, without even a lever purchase to help them along. There are stations or reservoirs at the end of each pump, and all must be kept continually working, night and day. The Indian pumpers sit down to their work upon the wet rock, and are as naked as when born; the great heat and want of ventilation at this depth, rendering clothing, if they had it, a superfluity.
They get fifty cents each, per day, and work twelve hours at a shift. In all my mining experience, I have never seen such a waste of power, and such thoroughly primitive appliances for mining.
I went through many of the galleries and drifts, and examined the vein carefully. The main vein is five to twelve feet wide, quite irregular, and runs in a generally southwestern and northeastern direction, dipping to the southwestward as it descends.
It carries metal in a very unequal degree in different portions,and though presenting rich specimens, and bunches of almost pure silver in spots, is not generally very rich.
In one chamber, I saw a number of mules and horses feeding, a thousand feet below the surface. These poor creatures are let down in slings, from the surface, through the tiro, and never go out again alive. They turned their glazing eyes upon us with evident pain as we passed with lighted torches, and appeared to regard us with mournful interest, as in some way connected with the world above, of which they still retained some dim recollection, but which they were never to look upon again.
In another chamber, I saw women and children cooking food for their husbands and parents. They appeared to live here, altogether, probably returning to the light of day only at long intervals. Utterly worn out, at last we climbed our way back to the tunnel, emerging into daylight just as the sun was setting, swallowed a liberal allowance of brandy, to protect ourselves against taking cold, mounted our horses, and galloped back to the city.
THE RESCATA.
The weekly sale of ores at the several mines, is called the rescata. One at the Serrano, I attended. The ore is placed on the ground, each miner’s work in a separate lot, and the buyers sample it before the sale. It is sold in the lump, by guess, not by weight, the buyer taking his chances on the amount. The auctioneer stands silent, under an umbrella, while the miners who have a small interest in the sales, over and above their wages, volubly shout the praises of the lot in turn. As each lot is put up, the buyers singly whisper their bids in the ear of the auctioneer, and when all have bid, he announces who bid the highest; the other bids are not named.
The chances for collusion seem, to me, to be very great. Some lots brought as high as five hundred dollars, and the aggregate sales exceeded six thousand five hundred dollars, at this rescata. This ended our sight-seeing in Guanajuato.
The silver mines of Northern Mexico, near the boundary of the United States, are supposed to be of great value, also, but their development has been retarded by the hostility of theApache and Comanche Indians, who hold possession of portions of the territories.
Mining operations, however, have been undertaken, of late, upon the Rio Grande, and also over the American line in Arizona territory, the products of which are already reaching the United States. Central America possesses no silver mines that are worked to much extent, but rich ores are known to exist in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
THE REAL DEL MONTE.
A very rich mine in Mexico is the one known as the Pachuca, in the group of the Real del Monte, and it has been worked almost from the time of the conquest of the country by Cortes. The most successful operator was Pedro Terreras, a muleteer, who found a shaft something more than a hundred years ago. He made so much money from it that he gave the King of Spain two ships of war, and promised him, if he would visit the country, he should have the ground paved with silver, and should not be required to put his royal foot on the plebeian earth. The king did not come, but he made the enthusiastic Terreras a member of the nobility under the name of Count of Regla. The mines yield about four million dollars annually, and the Regla family is one of the richest in Mexico. The ore yields about a hundred dollars a ton, and the miners are carefully searched every time they come up from their work. They wear only the lightest possible garments, which are changed and shaken whenever the gangs are relieved.
An interesting feature of mining life in Mexico is the search for sulphur in the craters of volcanoes. Popocatapetl and Orizaba are the principal mountains where this substance is sought, and an extensive business is carried on. The sulphur rises in the form of vapor, and is condensed around the crater of the volcano. It requires several years for an accumulation sufficiently thick to pay the expense of collection, and sometimes the work is very dangerous. Men are let down by ropes into the interior of the mountain, and sometimes they are killed by the heat and noxious gases. The miners are a hardy race, and seem to enjoy their venturesome occupation.
ASCENT TO THE CRATERS.
The ascent of these mountains is at all times difficult and fatiguing, and very few persons, other than the miners, ever attempt it. Sometimes an adventurous traveler happens along, and is not satisfied till he has made the ascent of one or both of the mountains, but he generally accumulates enough fatigue to last him several months.
Of this number is Mr. D. S. Richardson, United States Secretary of Legation, who, in February, 1877, climbed the peak of Orizaba, or Citlatepetl, as it is called by the Aztecs, the star mountain of the Anahuac. He had previously climbed to the top of Popocatapetl, and from its summit had gazed out over a sea of clouds to the frozen top of its mighty rival, and now the position was reversed. Mr. Richardson was accompanied by Mr. Eustace Morphy, who, with indomitable pluck, held out to the last. The point from which the ascent of Orizaba is generally undertaken is San Andres Chalchicomula, a pleasant little town, which lies directly under the great volcano, at its southwestern base. Here the sulphur-miners and the ice-cutters come down to sell the products of their hazardous industry. The time selected, February 5th, was not at all favorable for the ascent. The miners and guides had all come down, and reported the ascension impossible for several days to come; there had been no such storm in fifty years, they said, and to attempt to go up was simply madness.
Richardson and his companion yielded to their advice, and for a few days engaged in a hunting expedition—which, however, was a failure in so far as finding game was concerned. They saw one rabbit, and heard wolves and coyotes howling; but that was all. They were high up the mountain side, the weather was pleasant, and, as they had plenty of provisions, and no thought of care, they enjoyed the interval with a sense of absolute freedom. It was cold sometimes, and at night the little stars would look down freezingly through the tops of the pines, as if in derision of their foolishness; but these discomforts were as nothing compared with subsequent ones.
At one o’clock on the 10th of February, they began their climb up the mountain. For several hours their path woundup through the desolate ravines which separate the Sierra Negra from the peak. Great masses of volcanic rock were observed in fantastic shapes on every side, and on the entire face of the country, half covered with snow, could be read the signs of the savage convulsions which some day must have shaken the mountains to their foundations. On the morning of the 11th, the party resumed their march at two o’clock, and the ascent is thus described by Secretary Richardson:
THE ASCENT OF THE ORIZABA.
“We were six, all told, four Indians, Morphy, and myself. No party ever tried an ascent with better fellows for guides. They knew every inch of the ground, were strong and good-natured, and took a lively interest in the success of our enterprise. As we were the first to go up after the heavy storms, we went prepared to have a tough climb. The Indians said we would reach the top by ten o’clock, which was giving us seven hours to do it in. Under ordinary circumstances, and when the snow is in the best condition, the sulphur miners go up in five or six hours from the cave, but on the present occasion they had underestimated the difficulties. The snow was low down and very heavy, and long before the sun peeped up over the murky horizon, we were hopelessly launched upon the long, glistening slant, one end of which seemed reaching out to touch the stars, and the other shot far below us into a bank of clouds.
“Sunlight found us on the south side of the mountain, on a level about equal to the height of the Sierra Negra. The ascent now began to be very laborious, and, for the first time, we began cutting foot-steps in the ice in order to proceed. When half way up the mountain, the route usually taken is along a ledge of rocks which reaches up out of the snow like the dorsal fin of a shark, and runs clear to the top. In this respect, Orizaba differs very much from its kindred peak, Popocatapetl. Sharp, jagged points of rock stick out all over its surface like the spines of a porcupine, while the summit of Popocatapetl is a clean, unbroken cone. These rocks on the slopes of Orizaba are one of the principal sources of danger in the ascent, as they often come tumbling down in greatquantities; but at the time of our adventure, they were all held fast by the unusually heavy fall of snow. This was a point in our favor; but if we did not have to dodge rocks, there was no lack of active operations in other respects. The higher we went the more abrupt became the ascent, and the more uncertain the foothold. Ten o’clock came around, and the summit was still far above us.
“Every step now had to be cut out of the solid ice, and the fatigue and light air were beginning to tell on our uninitiated muscles. At eleven o’clock, we were at the foot of what is known as the rocks of thearrepentimiento. This is the last grand pull, the home-stretch, and it could not be more appropriately named. It is probably not over three hundred yards to the top, but it is almost a perpendicular wall of ice, and as it is reached when the adventurer is already fainting and about ready to give up, it is a formidable obstacle. We were three hours in getting over it, and then, almost fainting, and completely exhausted, we threw ourselves down on a little shelf of sand at the top of the peak.”
It was two o’clock in the afternoon when they reached the summit, just eleven hours after their departure from the Cave of Santa Cruz, which is itself no less than thirteen thousand feet above the sea. Two of their Indians left the party, preferring to climb the mountain the next morning, to spending the night on its top. Mr. Richardson says that that was the most horrible night he ever hopes to pass. He says:
“Shortly after our arrival, a cold wind came up that struck us to the very bone. There was no shelter to be obtained, as the descent into the crater was impossible, and the excavations from which the Indians take sulphur were covered deep with ice and snow. The bald, naked peak presented but one point where it was possible to spend the night. A little below the lip of the crater, on the southern side, a little steam escapes through a bed of sand, and here the snow is melted off a spot about a rod square. Into this sand we scratched a hole, and, pulling our blankets over us, laid down. We had no eyes for the magnificent panorama which was spread out before us,or the sun, which was going down blood-red in the west; we were too utterly miserable and cold.
“I do not think any of us slept a wink all night. Our blankets froze stiff as boards, and all attempts to light a little spirit lamp and make coffee were fruitless. We could not even drink our wine, for it had turned to ice in the bottles. Thus hour after hour of the longest night I ever spent dragged by, and at length signs of day began to creep up slowly from the east. Almost too stupefied and stiff to move, we were only induced to crawl out from our holes by the stern realization of our desperate situation. The wind, too, now began to go down somewhat, and after moving about a little we felt better. Making our way up to the topmost pinnacle, we planted our flagstaff and unfurled our blood-red banner to the breeze.
THE CRATER OF THE ORIZABA.
“The crater of Orizaba, which is much smaller than that of Popocatapetl, is still an awful chasm, and is probably not far from two miles in circumference. We could not take measurements of it, as all the instruments were down the mountain with the other party. It shows no signs of life, and with the exception of the heated sand on which we passed the night, we failed to notice any evidences of volcanic action still going on. But what a contrast this awful stillness to the great convulsions of which this mountain has once been the center. We had a magnificent view, for about an hour after sunrise, and as far as the eye could reach, peak after peak of lesser magnitude told the story of its volcanic birth. By a queer coincidence, I had broughtThe Last Days of Pompeiiwith me to read in leisure moments, and as I looked out over the world at my feet, and thought of Bulwer’s vivid description of the last days of that doomed city, the thought suggested itself, ‘who knows how many Pompeiis are buried beneath these hoary hills, and what tales might these rocks repeat if they would?’”