The trappings of the horse are not unworthy of the gorgeous habiliments of the jinete, or horseman. The Mexican montura, or saddle, is of beautifully tanned leather of a high colour, and profusely-embroidered with silver patterns and ornamentations, and the whole is exceedingly heavy. It is, however, remarkably comfortable, and "the horse carries the weight," the Mexican will inform you if you criticise its bulk in comparison with an English saddle. For work in the country no experienced traveller would ever think of using the English form of saddle. In Mexico or South American countries it is altogether unsuitable, both for horse and rider, giving a maximum of fatigue and minimum of comfort. Also the heavy Mexican bit and single rein are better for travel in these regions, as ever used by the natives. This bit is not necessarily cruel, and in fact the Mexican horses are so remarkably trained as to their mouths, that the faintest touch of a single finger on the bridle is sufficient for instant obedience. As to the huge spurs they are not necessarily cruel, indeed they are less so than the sharp English kind, which draw blood easily where the native instrument does not abrade the skin.

The remarkable and dexterous management of the lasso, or riata, by the rural Mexican is such as fills the beholder with admiration and surprise that so skilful a combination of hemp and horseflesh, managed by a man's hand, could exist. Behold the vaquero, with his riata whirling aloft as at full gallop he pursues a fleeing bull! Closing upon it a few yards away the lasso swings its unerring coils through the air, the noose descends upon horns or hoofs at the will of the vaquero, and it is quite common to lasso the two hind legs of the animal whilst he is in full gallop. And now the horse plays his intelligent part. The noose has fallen with the accuracy desired; the vaquero winds his end rapidly around the horn of the saddle; the horse gives a half-turn in the quickness of thought, in obedience to his own knowledge and a touch of the bridle, so presenting his flank and a long base to the direction of the strain; the rope tightens tense and smoking with the pull; horse and rider stand unmoved, but the great bulk of the arrested bovine falls prone to the ground. It is an art, a wonderful dexterity we have witnessed, acquired from birth. I ambitiously tried it once, but failed to turn the horse quickly enough, and was pulled over to the ground. Of sports on horseback the Mexicans indulge in several. Mark our friend the ranchero, in his holiday dress, upon a dia de fiesta. He is going to show us the "raya." His man marks a spot on the flat ground; the horseman retires with his steed to a short distance, put spurs to the animal, comes thundering along towards us at full gallop, and as he reaches the mark on the soil he suddenly draws rein, and the obedient horse putting his legs rigidly together, slides forward on his hoofs with his own momentum, scoring out a mark about his own length on the ground, and stops dead without moving a muscle. This mark is the "raya." Another diversion is that where gaily-be-ribboned chickens—alive—are provided by the novias, or sweethearts of the young men: and these, mounted on their steeds, ride fast and furious to capture the bird from the one who holds it. The unfortunate chicken is generally torn to pieces, and sometimes in jealous anger and rivalry other blood is shed than that of the innocent bird!

The riata at times serves the Mexican as a lethal weapon. Perhaps a quarrel between two hot-blooded vaqueros has taken place. One draws his revolver—if his circumstances permit him the possession of so expensive a weapon, and they are generally carried—whilst the other lays hand to his riata. It might be supposed that the man with the revolver would triumph, but woebetide him if he fails to bring down his enemy—both are darting about on their agile horses—before the chambers are exhausted, for the other, whirling the rope aloft, lassoes him, and putting spurs to his own beast, drags the unfortunate man from his horse and gallops away across the plain, dragging him mercilessly to death among the rocks and thorns. For the Mexican when aroused to anger—and his fiercest passions are generally the outcome of love affairs or of drink—is mercilessly cruel and revengeful, and thinks little of shedding the blood of a fellow-creature in the heat of a personal encounter. Among the lower class the knife, or punal, is a ready weapon, and a stab, whether in the dark or in the daylight, is a common way of terminating a personal question. This is the shadow of the Aztec war-god thus thrown across the ages! Again it may be said of the Mexicans—love blood, wine, dust!

Among the upper class Mexicans such matters are, of course, unknown, but the challenge and the duel is still a custom of the country, as it is throughout Spanish-America generally. It fell to my lot in one Spanish-American country to receive a challenge. The gentleman who thought himself aggrieved formally sent two friends to wait upon me, requesting that I would name my seconds and select weapons. There was something operatic about the matter to my mind, although they appeared to be in earnest, and I could not help reminding my two visitors of the proposal of a famous American humourist regarding a choice of weapons in such a case—"brick-bats at half-a-mile, or gatling-guns," or something of that nature. However, they would not be turned from their purpose even when I seriously asked if they really desired the shedding of gore. I gravely replied that Englishmen did not enter into such affairs and that I considered it uncivilised; and absolutely refused to have anything to do with them. This they pretended to attribute to cowardice, and said that in such a case I should be exposed to affront or attack in the street, to which I made reply that I expected to be able to take care of myself and to punish any one who should dare to attempt such a course. I easily gathered that an elaborate duel was in their minds, a show or scene, such the Latin races love and the Anglo-Saxon abhors, and I accused them of this. At length, in order to get rid of them I made the following proposal: "If your friend is really desirous that his blood or mine shall be shed, let him meet me alone—I want no seconds, nor friends nor any other fanfare. I go out every morning on horseback along a certain mountain road. To-morrow I will go alone—let your friend meet me, also alone, and there, without more witnesses than Heaven, we can settle all accounts." This grandiloquent-sounding exhortation had the advantage of coming straight from the heart; it was what I had resolved to do, and moreover my side was the just one. The two seconds departed without much comment, and on the following morning I mounted my horse and went out alone, along the described road. But in the front holster of the saddle there was a long-barrelled Colts revolver, and the Winchester carbine I had occasionally brought down a deer with was strapped in its usual place alongside the saddle. Yet upon all that expanse of road not a soul did I meet, neither that day nor on the several following ones during which I remained in the vicinity.

But such matters are comparatively rare, and the Spanish-American is generally a warm and courteous friend, with a considerable regard for Englishmen, and ever ready to show his hospitality, and those general qualities which are ever esteemed of the caballero.

The riata, which appliance or weapon has been described, is ever the accompaniment of the Mexican horseman, and part of his equipment. No rider would ever go forth without, for its multiplicity of uses in woodcraft and travel is remarkable. It is one of the main accoutrements of the rurales, the fine body of county police which were called into being by President Diaz. At the time of the war with the French of Maximilian the riata was sometimes employed by the Mexican soldiers with deadly effect in foraging or scouting parties. Two Mexicans, each with the end of a riata wound round the horn of his saddle, would charge suddenly from ambush upon some unsuspecting Franceses, tearing them from their horses with the taut rope. "The Mexicans have a terrible and barbarous weapon—the riata!"—was recorded by the French soldiery at that time.

As to foreigners in Mexico at the present time, those most in evidence are the Spaniards and the Americans of the United States. Spaniards are continually arriving, and they generally settle down and make good and useful citizens, and often amass much wealth. They are not, however, of the upper or cultivated class from Spain, and their manners and language are far inferior to those of the cultured Mexicans. The Spaniard of a certain class is possibly the worst-spoken man to be met with. His speech teems with indecent words and profane oaths, and whilst he does not mean to use these except as a mere habit, it marks him out from other races, even from the American with his own peculiar and constant "god-dam" and other characteristic terms, both profane and indecent. The most noticeable and objectionable American habit, however, which is shared by the Mexican and South American to the full, is that of continually expectorating. The Anglo-American never leaves it off, whilst, as to the Spanish-American, it is necessary to put up notices in the churches in some places requesting people "not to spit in the house of God!" There is a considerable population of Americans in Mexico, and some of these are of doubtful class and antecedents. But it would be unjust to pretend that only the Americans have furnished a doubtful element for Mexico's floating population. The shores of Albion have furnished a good many examples in the form of "unspeakable" Scotchmen, Englishmen, and Irishmen, at times. Yet the British name has, as a rule, been well established throughout Mexico and Spanish-America, and the American from the United States has often enjoyed the benefit of a reputation he had not earned, for, to the native mind, the distinction between the two English-speaking races is not always apparent at first sight, although it is upon closer acquaintance.

Whilst there is a growing sense of respect and esteem between the Mexicans and the Americans, the former have never quite forgotten that the latter despoiled them of an empire—from their point of view—by the Texan war, half a century ago or more, and only recently have the Mexicans come to believe that the big republic to the north no longer cherishes desires of further annexation of territory. The Americans, for their part, have given up dubbing the Mexicans as "greasers," and have acknowledged the pleasing and refined civilisation of their southern neighbours. The North American, or Americano, is often known in Mexico as the "Yankee"—not used in an offensive sense, but as a convenient designation. This is varied by the still less distinguished term of "gringo," and indeed, both these terms are employed, not only in Mexico, but thousands of miles below, in South America—Ecuador, Peru, Chile. The latter is not necessarily an opprobrious term, and it is applied to all Anglo-Saxons, British or American, and, indeed, in South America, to all Europeans of a fair complexion. Its derivation has been expounded by various writers as having come from the words of a song sung by some British or American sailors upon landing at a Mexican port, but the etymology seems doubtful. That of "Yankee" is more assured—the corruption of "English," or "Anglais," or "Ingles," employed by the Indians of North America towards the early settlers.

Conditions of life and travel in Mexico vary greatly according to the region we may be called upon to traverse. On the great plateau such as I have described, the hand of civilisation prevails, even if its evidences are at times far apart. In the tropical lowlands, whether of the Gulf or of the Pacific side of the country, we may be much more seriously thrown upon our own resources, whether for food, transport, or habitation. In the State of Guerrero there are yet large tracts of land absolutely unexplored, and the numerous tribes of Indians inhabiting certain of the tropical regions are under scarcely more than the semblance of control. Yet it cannot be said that they are ferocious or dangerous. Some of them, indeed, are cowardly, and will not even venture far from their villages for fear of wild beasts, whilst others form the most active and fearless guides, varying characteristics which show the wide range of peoples embodied in the country, as set forth in a previous chapter. Whilst Mexico cannot be called a "sportsman's paradise," there is in certain regions a great profusion of game, from turkeys to crocodiles. The guajalote, or Mexican wild turkey, with its great red beard and shimmering blue-black plumage, is a conspicuous inhabitant of Tamaulipas and other wild regions, and its low flight and plump body render it comparatively easy of securing, whilst it forms an excellent addition to the bill of fare. Huge wild cats abound in the broken country, and osos, or Mexican bears. Of sport, adventure, and romantic travel we may take our fill among these semi-tropical valleys, rivers, and mountains. Of noxious insects, malaria, wild beasts; of flooded streams and parched deserts; of sand-storms, snow-storms, and rain-storms; of precipitous mountains, tracts, and dangerous bogs; of gloomy forest and appalling crags; of delay, danger, and hardship, we shall have all that adventurous spirits may seek, and count the time well lost. Of pleasure in nature and solitude we shall have much, and of the study of primitive and civilised man, and of coquettish maidens and Indian maids, we shall carry away enduring recollections.

We are in camp. The exigencies of our travel have bid us take up our abode in that hastily-constructed jacal, or hut built of branches and plastered outside with mud, such as the peon knows cunningly how to contrive. Indeed, in such habitations a large part of Mexico's fifteen million inhabitants dwell. I inspect the well-ventilated walls, for numerous open chinks are left. "The wind will come in," I say. "Yes, senor," Jose, my peon-constructor, replies with unconscious wit, "it will not only come in but it will go out"—and he proceeds to remedy the defect.

Our residence in this spot may be for some weeks whilst at our leisure we examine mines, hydrographic conditions, flora, or other matters of scientific or commercial interest which our self-chosen exile demands. The simple habitation is pitched when possible, of course, near to a water supply, a clear running stream, or lake, and if the latter we can take a morning plunge. This excites the surprise of our mozo, or servant, and the other men in our employ.

"No, senor," they hasten to urge us, "it is dangerous to bathe the body." This objection to the use of cold water in this way does not arise from a dislike of cleanliness necessarily. The traveller in Western America soon finds that care must be exercised in bathing in the open, for the effect of the sun and the water is to bring on malaria sometimes, which is more easily acquired than cured.

On the edge of our lake great white herons stand in the cool of the early morning, and the wild ducks swimming lazily on its surface invite a shot. If it is winter and we are upon the high regions of the great plateau, the lake may freeze at its edges, imprisoning the unfortunate birds in the ice. The heat of the midday sun at these high elevations is succeeded at night by the bitter cold of the rarefied air, and the white drill suit we have worn must be supplemented by heavier garments.

The sun sets in gorgeous splendour over the plain and upon the grey-blue hills, and the short tropic twilight gives place to darkness, save perchance as the silvery moon of Mexico may cast its peaceful beams over the desolate landscape. Cigarettes and coffee are finished. No sound breaks the silence; our men's tales are all told as they crouch round the campfire. We have sought our couch and turned in, bidding the peones look to the horses, which, tethered near at hand, champ their oats or maize contentedly, giving from time to time that half-human sign with which the equine expresses his contentment and comfortable weariness. All is still. Sleep falls upon us.... Hark! what is that? A long mournful howl comes from the plain and winds through the canyon, and is repeated in chorus. "What is it, Jose?" I call to my mozo and the other men. "Coyotes, Senor," he replies, "they are crying to heaven for rain." Of course, I had forgotten for a moment that they have this habit, and the sound seemed almost unearthly.

To return to the game. We are going a-hunting to-day. The great barren plains and sterile rocky ribs which intersect them, the stony foothills and the dry arroyos do not seem to offer much prospect of sport. But our friend the Mexican hacendado, who has ridden up from his hacienda for the purpose of inviting us, assures us to the contrary. And, indeed, his words are soon justified. He and his men have led us far away towards the head of the canyon, and the dry stream-bed is fringed with mesquite and cactus which might offer shelter to quarry of some nature. A dozen dark forms start suddenly from the shadow of the bank upon whose verge we stand. Bang! bang! bang! In the twinkling of an eye we had dismounted, flung our horses' reins to the attendant mozos, and pointed our Winchesters. Several of the dark forms lie upon the sand below, inert; the others, already squealing far enough off, scrambling away. What are they? "Javelines, Senor," the mozos make reply. They are peccaries. A good bag indeed and excellent eating, as their ribs, roasted over a fire at the bottom of the arroyo, attest. Later on we look round for our host, but he is away after a plump venado—deer—which, passing near at hand, proves too strong for the sportsman's instinct. But the night falls ere he returns. "Never mind," is his greeting, "although we have to sleep here we may eat good venison," and across the horse of his mozo lies the drooping body of the deer, its eyes glazed in death, and the blood still dripping from the bullet wound which laid it low.

And so our hacendado friend, who owns the land we are upon for leagues away, and knows it well, leads us to a cave snugly hidden in the rocky wall, with a floor of purest quartz sand, and a limpid rivulet flowing thereby. The saddle bags are brought in; they are full of bread and tinned meats and native fruits, brandy and wine from his own vineyards. We are his honoured guest, and he plies us with all this fare, not forgetting the venison roasting outside. And filled and comforted with good food we discourse far into the night of weird things tinged with our friend's strange superstition and curious lore. Outside the coyotes howl, far away on the plain, and the mournful cry of the tecolote, or Mexican night owl, faintly reaches my ears, as, wrapped in my blankets with a saddle for a pillow, I fall asleep upon the cavern floor.



CHAPTER XIII MINERAL WEALTH. ROMANCE AND ACTUALITY.

Forced labour in the mines—Silver and bloodshed—History of discovery—Guanajuato—the veta Madre—Spanish methods—Durango— Zacatecas—Pachuca—The patio process—Quicksilver from Peru—Cornish miners' graves—Aztec mining—Spanish advent—Old mining methods— Romance of mining—The Cerro de Mercado—Guanajuato and Hidalgo—Real del Monte—Religion and mining—Silver and churches—Subterranean altars—Mining and the nobility—Spanish mining school—Modern conditions—The mineral-bearing zone—Distribution of minerals geographically—Silver—The patio process—Gold-mining and production—El Oro and other districts—Copper—Other minerals—General mineral production—Mining claims and laws.

"Grant me, oh! rock-ribbed matrix, here to know Thy minerall'd sanctuary; To none but me the sesame disclose, Un-oped since chaos fled!"

There is much of interest and something of pathos and romance attending the old mines of Spanish-American countries—Mexico, Peru, and others. They are so interwoven with the history of these countries, so redolent of the past, and of the hope, despair, piety, greed of the old taskmasters who worked them, and of the generations of toiling Indian workers who spent their lives in wresting treasure from the bowels of the earth. Religion, superstition, cruelty have marked their exploitation in past ages, and as we explore their grim abandoned corridors, and pass half fearfully their yawning pits, our imagination might conjure up some phantoms of those who toiled amid these old scenes of man's sweat and avarice.

The cruelty innate in the Spanish race has been shown in their mining methods, and the native population of Mexico, and in a larger scale of Peru, suffered severely at their hands. Guanajuato, one of the most famous and richest of the mining centres of Mexico—in past times as to-day—bears in its archives the stories of oppression which marked the methods of the Spaniards, and may be taken as a concrete example. It was a system of slavery under which these mines were worked—an atrocious system of forced labour which took no heed of Indian life, save as it might most cheaply extract a given quantity of gold or silver ore from the pits and adits beneath the ground. Thousands of peones were impressed into this forced labour; armed soldiers were stationed at the entrances of these labyrinths to see that each wretched serf deposited his sack of rock, under the load of which he had toiled up fathoms of notched pole, or ladder, from the infernal regions below, panting, sweating, expiring, and presently driven down again by the brutal taskmasters, jealous lest he might enjoy too much of the light of day and so sacrifice some moments in the delving amid the rocks which furnished the wealth. In 1619, a law was promulgated in Guanajuato—it remains upon the archives to this day—prohibiting the branding of slaves upon the face!

But these inhuman methods brought about their own punishment. The great Valenciana mine, opened in 1760, which for fifty years was worked at a sacrifice of human life by these methods, producing more than 300 million dollars, became at last the scene of a terrible vengeance, for the serfs rose in rebellion and massacred every white man upon the place. Indeed, the brutalities practised by the Spanish mine-owners largely influenced the revolution and secession from the mother country.

For more than three centuries there flowed from the mines of Mexico and Peru, millions and millions of silver and gold, which went to fill the needy coffers of Spain, to enrich a distant and callous or careless monarch, and to prop up a moribund nation. The appalling system of the mitad and the encomenderos, by which silver and gold were extracted with indecent haste, form such pages as can never be erased from the history of metallurgy in the New World.

Yet there is another light in which to regard the picture of Mexican mining, and remembering that mining operations, whether in the sixteenth or the twentieth century, whether in Spanish-America or elsewhere, ever embody conditions of usury and oppression, we may turn to this more pleasing aspect. For unless under grave oppression, the native miner, be it on the plateau of Anahuac, or in the Andine Cordillera, has been a zealous worker. His picturesque surroundings, simple mode of life, and easy-going disposition, together with the pervading sentimental attributes which his religion lent, and the sunny skies under which he toiled, took from mining much of the material brutality and grey atmosphere which enshroud it in Anglo-Saxon communities.

Mining was a source of enrichment which appealed strongly to the Spanish nature, and it must not be forgotten that to the efforts of the men of Spain the science of mining owes much. And, indeed, these remote waste places of the earth owe the civilisation they possess to the early work of these Conquistadores. The Anglo-Saxon world prides itself on the great discoveries and exploitations which have marked epochs in its gold- and silver-getting history, Australia, California, Nevada, Africa; but we shall not forget that Mexico and Peru were yielding up stores of gold and silver centuries before Captain Cook sailed, or before those historic nuggets were found by accident in Sutter's mill-stream, in the Californian Sierra region. Scarcely six years after the Conquest the silver of Mexico was being eagerly sought, and easily found, with that remarkable olfato possessed by the Spaniards. Shakespeare was at work, and Drake was voyaging under the Elizabethan aegis at the time when the great silver mines of the Mexican Sierra Madre were giving up their rich ores to treatment.

At Guanajuato, one of the most famous of the silver mining centres, prospecting was begun in 1525, only a few years after the Conquest, and the mining regions still further away to the north, as those of the famous Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, had already been discovered. History relates that the silver deposits of Guanajuato were discovered as a result of a camp-fire, made by some muleteers, who found refined silver among the ashes, melted from the rock beneath! Shortly after the middle of the sixteenth century the great Veta Madre, or "mother lode," of Guanajuato was pierced, with an ore-body 100 feet wide. This place, which to-day boasts a population of fifty thousand souls, had begun to grow and was granted a charter as a Villa Real at the beginning of the seventeenth century. This before the sailing of the Mayflower! So, as we look back upon those strenuous times of Mexican mining, we shall see much of good arising from the metallurgical conquest. We have a vision of fair cities, established within mountain fastnesses, within fertile plains, long centuries before the advent of the locomotive, cities whose wealth came from the fabulous riches of the great silver mines, whose ore was quarried from its lodes and deposits, cities where fine cathedrals arose, built from the taxes levied upon the product of these mines, by which fortunate national trait some good at least was perpetuated for the inhabitants and toilers who produced it. Does the mining director and shareholder of to-day loosen his greedy and capacious pocket for such works? We might ask the toiling nigger—Kaffir, or Chinese, and his Jewish employer in the mines of Africa. The Spaniards did not suck out the wealth of Mexico's soil only to enrich a decadent monarch and his coffers, thousands of miles away, for which we have reproached them. Some of the wealth their enterprise produced formed beautiful cities and made the desert blossom where, before, savage tribes of Indians roamed; and stimulated great thoughts and actions in men whose historic names remain upon the country's history.

It was a laborious journey from Spain to Mexico in those days, and mining was marked by difficulties due to the remoteness of the region from means of communication, and also from the hostile Indian tribes, who resented the advent of the white man into their territory. An example of the tenacity and courage of the invaders against these odds is shown in the founding of the fine city of Durango, 350 years ago. At that time this region was the home of savage tribes of Indians, who continually made raids upon the Spaniards. A marvellously rich mine, the Avino, worked as a huge open quarry, which exists to-day, was deeded by its owner to those white inhabitants there who would consent to build their houses together for mutual protection. Thus the beginning of the city of Durango was made.

Another famous mining centre in those early days, just as it is at present, was Zacatecas, and its name alone conveys the idea of silver and gold. In 1546 it was, that a lieutenant of Cortes, traversing the country, arrived there, observed its promise of mineral wealth, and formed a settlement. So rapidly did the place become renowned that, forty years afterwards, a Royal Charter was given to the city, and a coat of arms, with the title, "Noble and Loyal." The curious archives of the Alvarado Mines—they were worked by Fernando Cortes—which were kept, and which show the care in these matters exercised by the Spaniards, still exist; as is the case, indeed, with the records of many of the great mining centres of Mexico and Peru. Here it is shown that an enormous output of silver was made, the total from 1548 to 1867 amounting to nearly eight hundred million dollars.

The great lodes of the famous mining centre of Pachuca, which at the present day are the most productive, were discovered by the companions of Cortes soon after the Conquest. But knowledge of the great wealth in silver there was held by the Aztecs, who, in fact, showed the main veins to the Spaniards. It was here that Bartolome de Medina discovered the famous method of treating silver ores by amalgamation with quicksilver, known as the patio process, in 1557. An improvement on his invention came from Peru, in 1783, which was the use of mules instead of men in treading out the crushed ore. From far-away Peru other matters had come, as the quicksilver from the great Huancavelica mines, the mercury necessary for the process. And the beautiful Peruvian pepper trees, which were brought to ornament the plaza of Pachuca by one of the last of the Viceroys from Lima, form another reminiscence of the sister land of the Incas, in Mexico. There is at Pachuca a link with the world of Anglo-Saxon mining—the cemetery where to-day lie the bones of clever Cornish miners, who, in the time of the British revival of Mexican mining, taught the native their more useful methods. There lie these hardy sons of Cornwall, "each in his narrow cell," within the foreign soil whereon he had laboured.

What is the earliest time at which man began to dig for minerals in Mexico? It is not possible to determine this, as it is involved in the obscure history of the races of prehispanic days. But it has been affirmed that the method of recovering gold by amalgamation with quicksilver must have been known to the Maya civilisation which preceded the Aztec times. This is adduced from the discovery of a vessel containing quicksilver, during the excavations, in 1897, of the celebrated ruins of Palenque, in Chiapas. The native miners of Mexico have always won gold from the rocks, it is stated, by the method of crushing ore and treating it with quicksilver in amalgamation, and it is considered that the method has not been derived from the white man, but was handed down from the Mayas. Be this as it may, the early Mexicans carried on regular mining operations, extracting metals and metallic ores from the rocks by means of pits and galleries, and these, in some cases, furnished the Spaniards, after the Conquest, with the first indication of the existence of mineral-bearing veins. Gold was taken, however, among these prehistoric people, mainly from the stream-beds, or placer deposits, where it had been concentrated by nature. Gold was used more as a decorative or useful material than as a medium of currency, among the Aztecs, as among the Incas of Peru. However, in Mexico, transparent quills full of gold-dust were used as money. Gold ornaments figured largely in the military pomp and domestic decoration. The wonderful representations of animals and plants which they fashioned, and the remarkable presents of gold and silver which Montezuma made to Cortes, among them two great circular plates "as large as the wheel of a carriage," attest the relative abundance of the precious metal which the early Mexican possessed. How similar were these objects to those which figured in the dramatic scenes enacted in the Andes of Peru nearly three thousand miles away, a few years later, the student will recollect. Cortes told Montezuma that the Spaniards "suffered from a disease, which only gold could cure," and the Aztec monarch sent supplies of the yellow metal to alleviate this!

In addition to the mining and reduction of the ores of the three noble metals, gold, silver, and mercury, which these people understood and practised, were similar operations regarding lead, copper, and tin. Of the two latter they formed an alloy, and made tools of the bronze. Small T-shaped pieces of tin, moreover, were used as a medium of exchange or currency. As to iron, it appears to be the case that they were unacquainted with its use, notwithstanding that the ore of the metal is exceedingly plentiful. Nevertheless, it is stated that iron was mined and wrought into use at Tula, the Toltec centre, in the State of Jalisco, long before the advent of Cortes and the Spaniards.

Regarding the subject of the mining and metallurgy of the Aztecs and their predecessors in prehispanic days, it must be recollected that historical knowledge about it is exceedingly meagre, and the details of their operations in this field of industry are buried in much obscurity.

The Spanish advent wrought a marked change in the history of mining in the country. The Spaniards began to work mines as early as 1526, and continued their exploitation until 1810, the time of the War of Independence, at which period the value of the yearly output was 27,000,000 dollars. There was a general expulsion of the Spaniards in 1829. It was, however, in 1700 that the most marked period of Spanish mining began. The production of gold and silver from 1522 to 1879, according to the most reliable authorities, is given approximately as 3,725,000,000 dollars, of which gold formed 4 to 8 per cent. Indeed, the staple product of Mexico has ever been silver, in those remote times as it is to-day, and it has been calculated that possibly one-third of the existing quantity of silver in the world has come from the lodes of the Sierra Madre of Mexico.

The early Spaniards, whilst they did not despise the indication left or given by the Aztecs in the discovery of rich mines, struck out for themselves and found the great lodes which yielded fabulous fortunes in silver to their fortunate owners. These adventurous spirits spread over the whole of the country bordering upon the Sierra Madres, stimulated by the rich finds of silver mines successively made in one region or another. They have left old workings in almost every region where minerals exist, and they extracted great bonanzas with their crude, old-fashioned appliances. Ancient corkscrew-like workings, analogous more to the burrowings of animals than the excavations of man, honeycomb the crests of lodes and veins in every part of the country. After yielding fortunes to their workers these mines were abandoned, not because they were worked out, but for lack of appliances for drainage and hoisting, and in this condition, flooded or caved-in, remain innumerable of their old treasure-chambers to this day.

But not all the Spaniards' workings were of this nature. Magnificent tunnels were run by them into the bowels of hills, tunnels whose enormous dimensions excite the wonder of the mining engineer of to-day. In some instances these socavones, or great adits, are of such a size that a mounted horseman can enter with ease, or a locomotive might easily traverse them. Indeed, the engineer of to-day hesitates to attack the mountain sides with such bold adits as the Spaniard, with inferior materials, drove into them. Similar tunnels were driven by the Spaniards in some of the famous mines of Peru.[33]

[Footnote 33: See my book, "The Andes and the Amazon."]

Ancient ore-reduction works, arrastres, canals, ditches, excavations, tunnels, pits, ruined buildings, and in some cases falling church walls, all of this bygone age, are encountered throughout the country, scattered far and wide. Those who lived and moved and had their being therein lie mingled with the dust these centuries past, and kind nature has often covered up the evidences of their handiwork with flower and foliage.

There was a steady flow of the two precious metals to the City of Mexico from the innumerable mines of the regions which produced them. To attempt to describe these mines, even those renowned for their richness, would fill a chapter alone. Fantastic displays of wealth are recorded by the owners of some of the great silver-producing mines—the bridal chambers of a palace, lined by the father of a bride with silver bars; the footpath from the plaza to the church paved with great silver ingots, for the bridal party.

A famous hill of iron—standing on the plains of Durango, stands out also from the historical vista of metallurgical discovery of those early days. In 1552 Vasquez de Mercado, a Spaniard of wealth and family in Mexico, living in Guadalajara, heard from the Indians that a great mountain of pure silver existed on the boundless plateau far to the north. Arming an expedition he set forth with this vain illusion actuating him, and travelled on day after day expecting that every sunrise would gleam upon the burnished slopes of this silver mountain. Battles were fought with the savage Indians who inhabited the plains, but vanquishing these the deluded party pushed on. At last, on the horizon, the hill rose; they approached it: it was iron! Sleeping sore-hearted at its base that night, Mercado and his companions were attacked by Indians, various soldiers killed, and he himself wounded. Returning homeward towards Guadalajara, the unfortunate leader succumbed to his wounds, fatigue, and the ridicule of his companions, and he perished. But the great Cerro de Mercado, the hill of iron, still remains one of the wonders of Mexico.

The long years of the struggle for throwing off the dominions of Spain wrought a great change in Mexican mining, and even when independence was accomplished, the warring revolutionary factions of a country divided against itself destroyed all sense of security, alienated the labour, and so mining fell into disuse, and the mines into ruins. The history of the great Guanajuato silver mines is typical of the effect political conditions exercised upon this industry. The great output of silver from the Valenciana mine—300 million dollars during the last half of the eighteenth century—fell, after the first decade of the nineteenth, to insignificant proportions. The city was attacked in 1810, when in the zenith of her production, by the revolutionary army of the Republicans under Hidalgo, the famous instigator of independence. Sanguinary struggles took place in the city, which fell, and with it the mining industry. Work was stopped; the waters flooded the shafts and galleries, general lawlessness took the place of order, and bands of armed robbers helped themselves at will to the silver, and made forced loans upon the community. Indeed, at the great mining centres throughout the country, Mexican mine buildings resemble fortifications rather than the structures of a peaceable industry; those which were constructed during those turbulent times. Battlemented walls and loopholes give some of these places the appearance of the stronghold of robber barons of the Middle Ages, and remind the traveller, under the peaceful regime of to-day, how rapid has been the country's progress.

The troubled times of Iturbide followed, and mining operations practically ceased. The Indians at this period became unruly in some districts, due to the withdrawal of the Spanish soldiers who protected the mining communities; and in Sonora, one of the busiest of the mining states, a great uprising of the savage Apaches in 1825 caused the abandoning of towns and industries and the inauguration of a long period of ruin and bloodshed. In 1824 something of a revival had begun, by the operations of English capitalists in the great silver-producing centres of Real del Monte, at Pachuca, as already mentioned, and at Guanajuato. The history of this period at Real del Monte is a remarkable one, not yet forgotten, and the lavish outlay of funds made by the London company in Mexico and the extraordinary speculation upon the shares in London are still pointed to as an example of mining operations as conducted at that period. After spending twenty million dollars and extracting sixteen millions from its mines, the company was wound up in 1848. It was succeeded by a Mexican company, which operated to the present time, when sale has been made to American capitalists. The turbulent times of Maximilian and the struggles later for the Presidency of the Republic among its ambitious and unscrupulous military element in later years told against peaceful industry. Soldiers and bandits vied with each other in extortions and robberies, and the fortifications which it was necessary to construct around the mine buildings attest the state of lawlessness of that period.

Even towards the close of last century life and property were insecure, and men went armed in daylight in the streets of Pachuca even in 1890. At Guanajuato the English company which had acquired the great Valenciana and La Luz mines worked them successfully for years, but often under difficulties due to the raids of revolutionists—as in 1832. But a disastrous period followed, and during the last decade of the nineteenth century the end came. The regeneration of these historic groups of mines which is now taking place is due to American enterprise—the British regime is over. The Aztec, the Spaniard, the Mexican, the Briton, and the American—each have had their day in taking this treasure of the white metal from the mother lodes of Anahuac. Whatever their operations, good or evil, they have in succession done service to the world—putting into circulation added means of currency and commerce.

The extent into which religious matters and emblems entered into mining in these early days in the New World was remarkable. In many cases the entrances to the mines were through elaborate stone doorways, with pillar, capital, and pediment, carved figures of saints, and surmounted by a cross. Such are often encountered in Mexico and Peru, and they seem rather the portals to a temple than the entrance to a mine. There was some virtue in work which lavished its sentiment and artistic skill upon the surroundings of a purely industrial enterprise. Churches and chapels, in many instances, surmount the hills whose bowels are pierced by shaft and gallery, and upon the walls of these hang strange pictures, depicting, in some places, incidents of mining life and accidents, placed there perchance by some devout one who had escaped from danger. In some cases these churches were built by fortunate men who had become fabulously rich by the discovery of some great bonanza, and in token of their gratitude to their patron saint who had guided them to so fortunate a destiny they raised the temple which bore his name.

The fine cathedral of Chihuahua, which cost more than half a million dollars, was built from a tax levied upon every pound of silver from the rich Santa Eulalia mine—discovered in 1704—of that region; and in the State of Guerrero, at Taxco, a splendid church was built which cost, it is stated, one and a half million dollars to construct, yielded by the famous mine there. A huge gallery, or tunnel, which was begun by Cortes, forms part of the extensive workings. Another example embodying this strange medley of silver and piety is that of the celebrated shrine, or church, of Guadalupe, near the capital, whose sacred vessels, altar rails, candelabra, and other accessories of a like nature, are formed of silver contributed by the pilgrims who, since the time of the vision which made the place famous, journeyed thither. The weight of the silver contained in these articles is calculated at fifty tons. In the plateau-city of Durango stands a fine cathedral, and this was built from the taxes imposed upon the great Avino mine, and stands as a lasting monument to the great natural wealth of silver which gave it being and which for 350 years has enriched the inhabitants of that favoured spot. In some of the rich mines it is recorded that the miners were permitted to carry out each day a large piece of rich ore, which they presented as an offering to the priest, who devoted the total to the building of a temple. At Catorce a splendid church was so constructed, at a cost of nearly two million dollars.

The great Valenciana mine at Guanajuato, of which mention has been made as the scene of ruthless oppression practised upon the natives by the Spaniards, which terminated in bloody vengeance, left a monument to the fabulous wealth extracted from it. This was built by a miner, one Obregon, who, the chronicles of the city state, became the "richest man in the world." With that almost fanatic and inexhaustible credence and energy which has often characterised the Spanish miner, he drove his adit year after year into the bowels of the great "mother lode"; penniless, ruined at last, without credit, and earning by his losses and persistence the name of el tonto—"the fool." But—almost as if his patron saint had resolved to teach his detractors a lesson—the reward came. The richest bonanza that the "mother lode" ever yielded he struck. From the results of this great treasure—a mere fraction of it—he caused the fine Valenciana church to be raised, whose handsome facade still draws the traveller's attention and marks the romantic episode of mining lore which gave it birth. The building of the temple was begun in 1765; its cost was a million dollars.

Ancient and, in many cases, ruined churches, especially in some of the northern states, lie scattered throughout the regions where great mining communities dwelt—now dead and gone. But religion—or the barbaric custodian of religion, the Inquisition—claimed her victims among the workers of mines. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was that a rich mine—the Monoloa, in the State of Jalisco—was being worked by one Trevino and his partner, who, having been denounced to the Holy Office by jealous neighbours, they were accused of invoking the aid of the devil in their work. The unfortunate mine-owner was brought to the capital in consequence in 1649 and burned alive!

The Mexican miner, like his brothers of Peru or Chile, not content with the churches and shrines above ground which his religion afforded, often formed chapels and set up images in the subterranean caverns to whose habitation his daily toil condemned him. Shrines and crosses are frequently encountered in the galleries and chambers of Mexican mines now, as ever. Often, candles are kept burning before them throughout the eternal night, which they illuminate, and in some cases the devout among the miners go through these underground labyrinths in their daily toil in the dark, saving their candles to light the shrine! As they pass this bright spot their accustomed hand comes up to make the sign of the cross, and wearied knees humble themselves in a genuflexion. In one of the mines at Guanajuato there is an elaborate underground shrine where as many as two hundred candles burn at times, shedding a radiance which contrasts weirdly with the gloomy depths of worked-out caverns which surround it.

Such vast wealth as was extracted from some of these mines brought not only material riches, but royal honours and State positions to their owners. Titles of nobility were given by the Spanish sovereigns to fortunate mine-owners, some of whom had afforded loans or rendered other services, and they received the high reward of being admitted into the ranks of the Spanish aristocracy. Thus the builder of the great church of Valenciana at Guanajuato, which has been described in this chapter, from plain Antonio Obregon became Count of Valenciana. And, again, another miner of that city, Sardaneta, who drew millions from the famous Rayas mine, from the bonanza which his persistent adit upon the "mother lode" laid bare, received the title of Marquis of Rayas. Still another—marquis and viscount—this wonderful city and its silver mountains afforded in Francisco Mathias, the owner and worker of mines upon this mighty ore deposit. To some of these men, as related, there have remained monuments in the great churches they built. The Marquis of Sardaneta raised up the massive and enduring structures which form the buildings of the Rayas mine at Guanajuato, whose striking architectural features of flying buttresses, massive walls, and sculptured portals arrest the traveller's attention. No sheds of props and corrugated roofs are there; but arches, pillars, and walls of solid stone, cut and carved, defying the centuries—and above their portal is the sculptured image of Michael the archangel.

Pachuca, the wonderful silver-producing city not far from the capital of Mexico, produced a Mexican noble. This was Pedro Romero de Terreros, who, in 1739, having discovered a great bonanza, enriched himself by this characteristic stroke of fortune. He rendered some service to the King—presenting a battleship to the Imperial Navy—and was created a count—Conde de Regla.

It is not to be supposed that the Spanish Government did not recognise, in its demands for bullion from its colony of Mexico, any necessity for scientific advancement in mining. A petition sent to Carlos III. in 1744 by various prominent persons, and originated by one of the foremost miners of the country, secured the Royal assent to the creation of a "Mining Tribunal," and towards the close of the century this was established, with a school where the sons of poor miners received gratuitous education in mining, without distinction of caste or colour. Indeed, the sons of Indian chiefs of the Philippines were brought over and instructed here, and returned later to stimulate gold mining in their native land. A special tax on miners was then imposed for the purpose of raising an adequate building, and this was completed in 1813, and it has been considered one of the best architectural features of the capital. It contained a special chapel, where services were held for the students up to the time of the Reform, after which it was turned into a library.

Important as mining has been in the past history of Mexico, it is, and must remain, the most important of the industries of the country—in the sense of wealth produced. This does not mean, of course, that it is the most beneficial to the interests of the country and its inhabitants at large, for agriculture is that by which the bulk of the native Mexicans earn their means of subsistence.

The mineral-bearing zone of the country is a very extensive one, and includes all that portion of the Republic traversed by the Sierra Madres and their offshoots. From the State of Sonora in the north, the boundary with the United States, to that of Chiapas in the south—bordering upon the neighbouring Republic of Guatemala—minerals are found. The region in which the most important mining districts exist, and in which the historic mines of Mexico lie, forms a great zone 1,600 miles long—between the States of Sonora in the north to Oaxaca in the south—and 250 miles wide. These more famous and largely-worked mines are chiefly upon the western slope of the Eastern Sierra, and their elevations above sea-level range from 3,000 feet to 9,000 feet, and more. The minerals which are found throughout this great region include almost all those known to commerce, and, more or less in relative order of their importance, are as follows:—

Silver, copper, gold, lead, quicksilver, iron, coal, zinc, salt, antimony, petroleum, sulphur, tin, bismuth, platinum; and others more rarely, as nickel, cobalt, &c. Onyx, marble, opals, emeralds, sapphires, topazes, rubies, are found, and other precious stones, whilst diamonds are said to exist in certain localities. Agates, cornelians, obsidian, are also among the products of this nature.

The following table shows the principal distribution of minerals in the various states:—

+ + + MINERALS. + + STATE. Silver. Gold. Copper. Lead. Tin. Mercury. + + -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ Aguascalientes " " " Campeche . . . " " Chiapas . . . . " " " " Chihuahua . . . " " " " Coahuila . . . " " " " Colima . . . . " " " Durango . . . . " " " Guanajuato . . " " " Guerrero . . . " " " " Hidalgo . . . . " " Jalisco . . . . " " " " " Lower California " " " Mexico . . . . " " Michoacan . . . " " " Nuevo Leon . . " " Oaxaca . . . . " " " Puebla . . . . " " " Queretaro . . . " " " " " " San Luis Potosi " " " Sinaloa . . . . " " Sonora . . . . " " " " " Tabasco . . . . Tamaulipas . . " " " Tepic . . . . . " " " " Vera Cruz . . . " " Zacatecas . . . " " " " " + + -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+

+ + + MINERALS. + + STATE. Iron. Coal. Petroleum. Zinc. + + -+ -+ + -+ Aguascalientes Campeche . . . " " Chiapas . . . . " " Chihuahua . . . " Coahuila . . . Colima . . . . Durango . . . . " " Guanajuato . . Guerrero . . . " Hidalgo . . . . " Jalisco . . . . " Lower California Mexico . . . . Michoacan . . . " " Nuevo Leon . . " Oaxaca . . . . " " Puebla . . . . " " Queretaro . . . San Luis Potosi " Sinaloa . . . . Sonora . . . . " " Tabasco . . . . " Tamaulipas . . Tepic . . . . . " " Vera Cruz . . . " " " " Zacatecas . . . + + -+ -+ + -+

+ + -+ MINERALS. + -+ STATE. Antimony. Sulphur. Bismuth. Salt. + + -+ + + -+ Aguascalientes Campeche . . . Chiapas . . . . Chihuahua . . . " Coahuila . . . " Colima . . . . Durango . . . . " Guanajuato . . " Guerrero . . . Hidalgo . . . . Jalisco . . . . Lower California " " Mexico . . . . " Michoacan . . . " Nuevo Leon . . Oaxaca . . . . Puebla . . . . Queretaro . . . " San Luis Potosi " Sinaloa . . . . " Sonora . . . . Tabasco . . . . Tamaulipas . . Tepic . . . . . " Vera Cruz . . . Zacatecas . . . " + + -+ + + -+

The geological formation of the country does not bear special relation to the deposits of metalliferous minerals, which are distributed in many parts of the great zone. In general terms it may be said that the abundance of the ores rather than their richness characterises the mines of Mexico and is the source of their wealth. Those which have most steadily produced bullion generally consisted of a main lode containing enormous quantities of low-grade ore of about 60 ounces per ton; and typical of these are the mines of Guanajuato, Pachuca, Queretaro, Zacatecas, and others. The ores, however, are not always low-grade, for great bonanzas of exceedingly rich ore were encountered, making rapid fortunes for their discoverers.

Silver.—The main lodes in those places enumerated have ranged up to hundreds of feet in width, and form the most potent silver-ore deposits upon the globe. Their extensions in length and depth bear out their importance as metal-producing sources. Thus the Mellado vein, of Guanajuato, measures, in places, more than 300 feet in width; with workings ten miles in length, and extending to a present depth of nearly 2,000 feet. The Veta Madre, or "mother lode," ranges from 30 feet to 165 feet in width; whilst others of the famous lodes reach 50 to 100 feet. As to the ore-values, Humboldt, who visited Guanajuato in the height of its production, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, assigned as his calculation a value equal to about 80 ounces of silver per ton for the whole lode. For portions of the ore-bodies, and for many of the great bonanzas, much higher values have obtained, silver up to 7,000 ounces per ton having been encountered; whilst ores of 1,100 ounces have been frequently exported to Great Britain.

The almost fabulous wealth obtained from the silver mines has been shown in the foregoing pages, and these mines are far from being exhausted at the present day. The importance of the Pachuca mines is shown by the statement that they produce six million ounces of silver and 30,000 ounces of gold yearly. Of the population of the city, of forty thousand souls, seven thousand are employed underground.

All of the Mexican states are silver bearing, although those which contain the famous mines are the most important, as:—Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo (Pachuca), Mexico. All these states contain numerous mining districts—cities, towns, camps—which it would take too much space here to enumerate. With the exception of the few modern installations most of the mines are worked by the primitive Mexican system of winding up the ore in raw-hide sacks, hauled by means of cables made from maguey fibre, upon a mule-actuated windlass—the malacate. In some cases the miners carry huge pieces of ore on their backs, from 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. in weight, along the galleries to the shaft. Interior transport and haulage are primitive.

The principal ore of silver is the sulphate, although native silver is also freely encountered in some districts. The ores were very generally decomposed to a depth of about 300 feet. Argentiferous galena is plentiful, and silver is freely found in conjunction with copper ores. The caliches, a chalk-like substance, easily worked, is another rich form of occurrence of the metal, and there are others less important. Various different methods of separating silver from its ores are used; the prevailing ones being those of smelting, lixiviation, and the patio process, which last has accounted for 90 per cent. of the production. Indeed, the recovery of silver by the patio process has always been one of the most important industries of Spanish-American countries, especially in Mexico, Peru, and Chile. In Mexico it has been employed continuously since the year 1557, when it was invented by Medina at the hacienda Purisima Grande. This was the first application of amalgamation to silver ores, and permitted the treatment of the vast quantities of low-grade ores, which did not pay to smelt. To-day great quantities of ore are still treated by this method. The process is too well known to require much description here. Its main points of advantage are the simplicity—in practice, for its chemistry is complicated in theory—of its methods and appliances. The principal agents employed may be said to be mercury and horseflesh, or rather mule-flesh; the mercury forming an amalgam with the precious metals under the incorporation brought about by the trampling hoofs of the mules. The trampling and incorporation of the torta, or charge of pounded ore, mercury, water, salt, copper sulphate, and other constituents, mixed into a paste, was originally performed by barefooted natives, but the practice of using mules for the purpose came from Peru, in 1783, as before mentioned. The patio, as its name implies, consists of a paved yard upon which the crushed mineral is treated. This is in some cases of very large capacity, one of the most important in the country, that of the Guadalupe works at Pachuca, which treats nearly a thousand tons of ore a week, being as large as the plaza of a city. Upon this the torta is spread, and bands of a dozen mules, or mules and horses, harnessed together, are driven up and down from morning till afternoon, through the slushy mass. The animals are then bathed to remove the chemicals, but notwithstanding this the work is deleterious, and they last but a few years—the old ones but a few months—as they become poisoned by the copper sulphate. At some of the haciendas of Pachuca six hundred horses are employed in this work, and the total throughout the country is considerable. Constant efforts have been made for the use of mechanical appliances, to take the place of the equine mixer, but these have not been found to give the same efficiency. The process is typical of the country and the race—time, space, and material are plentiful, and labour is cheap, and horses—well, they were made for man's use! The innate tendency of the Spanish-Americans to do without mechanical appliances also is indulged.

The growth of the silver-producing industry of recent years is shown by the returns, giving approximately a value of seven million Mexican dollars for 1890 and fifty million for 1902, for export alone. The total value of the silver production for 1907 was eight million sterling, which was more than that of the United States, and so Mexico led the world in that year.

Gold.—The gold which was formerly produced in Mexico has come principally from the silver ores, with which it is generally associated, and has been obtained from the amalgamation of these. More recently gold-bearing quartz lodes are being worked, and are producing important quantities of gold. Among the foremost of these are the mines of the district of El Oro, in the State of Mexico, somewhat less than a hundred miles to the north-west of the capital. They produced in 1905 about ten million dollars in gold, or about 800,000 dollars per month. Whilst Mexico has not generally been looked upon as a gold-producing country, it is undoubtedly the case that it will, under the present rate of development, rank among the foremost of these. At present Mexico holds sixth place with a production for 1907 of 3-3/4 millions sterling. Gold-bearing lodes are being discovered and worked in most of the States, and thousands of such deposits are being prospected, or awaiting such, whilst numerous crushing plants are treating ores in those districts most accessible to the railways. The enterprise known as El Oro Mining and Railway Company may be looked upon as a well-managed and prosperous concern, controlled by British capital. It was first acquired by a British company in 1815, and it is stated that it yielded five or six million pounds sterling of gold. Later it was abandoned, taken up in 1870 by native capitalists, and at the end of last century purchased by an American company, to be again acquired by British interests in 1899. The enterprise controls a large area of ground of more than 500 acres, a short railway to the Mexican National Line, and some valuable forests which afford fuel. With its battery of 200 stamps and large cyaniding mills, it has a capacity for ore treatment of 20,000 tons per month. The yield per ton of ore is given for 1900 at slightly under 3 pounds sterling per ton, at a cost of about 25s., and for 1907 35s. per ton, at a cost of slightly under 20s. The tonnage treated for these years were 53,500 tons and 263,000 tons respectively, and all the intervening years show the steady increase. The output for 1907 was more than a million tons of ore, due to the added capacity of the new stamp mill, whilst the monthly profits for that year and for 1908 fluctuated between 14,000 and 18,000 pounds sterling.

Other successful enterprises of El Oro region are the Somera Gold Mining Company, affiliated with the foregoing, and the Mexico Mines of El Oro. The latter company's mill has a capacity of 250 tons of ore daily, and the recent monthly profits have been, it is stated, upwards of 15,000 pounds sterling. These are also controlled by British capitalists, as is the "Esperanza" Mine of El Oro, it is stated, which has produced since 1895 a value of 4-1/2 millions sterling, with a profit of nearly 2-1/2 millions. The "Dos Estrellas" Mine is yet another example of this successful district. It is said to have made profits since 1902 of 2-1/2 millions sterling, and to have ore for future work in large quantities. It is interesting to note that this excellent performance has been made on ground which had been condemned by mining experts![34]

[Footnote 34: These figures are from the Mexican Year Book, 1908.]

Other prosperous mining concerns in different parts of the country, generally owned by native capital, include the "Real del Monte" Mines of Pachuca, elsewhere described: the "Maravellas and Anexas Mining Company," principally silver producing; the "Santa Gertrude Mines," a silver property; "La Blanca and Anexas," gold and silver—all of which are in the Pachuca district. The Parral mining district, in Chihuahua, is one which has recently received attention, although it is not new, having yielded silver from the middle of the sixteenth century. Some six millions sterling represent the investments in the district during the last fifteen years in these mines. The famous Penoles Mine is among the most prosperous in the country. This is a lead-gold-silver-producing enterprise in Durango, at Mapimi, worked first in Colonial times. Now it owns large smelters, a line of railway, and an extensive property. In 1907 this enterprise produced 58,000 kilograms of silver, 504 kilograms of gold, and has an annual output of some 20,000 tons of lead.

In Sonora various gold-mining properties are at work. Among them is the Consolidated Goldfields of Mexico, Ltd., British capital: the Creston-Colorado Mines, worked by American capital, including the old British-worked Minas Prietas mines: there are other gold mining companies old and new under British enterprise, and the Bufa and the Trinidad Companies, producing gold, silver, and copper. In fact, the State of Sonora is a rich field for the working of the precious metals, and offers great possibilities.

In Chihuahua are some important gold and silver-producing enterprises, among them the Greene Gold-Silver Company, owned by Americans, and the Palmarejo Mines, a British enterprise. Indeed, with its numerous important mining centres, this State is held to be the foremost in Mexico, and a large output of the precious metals is being made.

Lower California contains a great deal of resource in gold-quartz lodes, and some important placer deposits. This territory is one of the richest mineral regions of North America.

The principal gold-producing States are Chihuahua, Sonora, Zacatecas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Mexico, Lower California, Hidalgo, Chiapas, Coahuila. No less than eighteen of the States of Mexico contain gold-bearing districts.

Hydraulic, or placer, mining for gold has not been much considered as a source of supply, as there are no great alluvial deposits, so far known, such as exist in other parts of North and South America. Nevertheless, something has been done in this way, principally in the States of Chihuahua and Guerrero. The geological formation, however, does not point the probability of the existence of great alluvial deposits, and the placers take the form of river bars principally.

The rise of Mexico's gold-production has been rapid. The country now holds sixth place. In 1893 its value was less than 4 per cent. of that of the silver output, whilst in 1894 it jumped to 14 per cent., and in 1902, 20 per cent. The export of gold bullion in 1890 was only half a million Mexican dollars, whilst in 1903 it had risen to 11-1/2 millions. The value of the total gold production for 1907 was 3-3/4 millions sterling.

Among other producing mines is the Providencia, of Guanajuato, yielding gold, silver, and iron. Yet another is the "San Rafael and Anexas," a regular dividend-payer, whose net profits for 1907 are given as three-quarters of a million dollars. The famous region of Tlalpujahua is once more receiving attention.

Copper.—The rise of Mexico as a copper-producing country has been remarkable. Less than fifteen years ago the Republic was unheard of as a source of the red metal, now it ranks second in the world's output, coming next to the United States with a production for the year 1907 of 56,600 tons. The following States are those which are most important as copper-bearing: Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Michoacan, Puebla, Queretaro, Tamaulipas, Lower California, and Colima.

In Sonora the following mines are at work: The Bufa Mining and Smelting Company; the Trinidad Mining Company, upon which large sums of money have been spent; the Montezuma Mine, an important enterprise, formed with an outlay of millions of dollars upon its appliances and workings, and having a daily capacity of 250 tons of ore, belonging to American capitalists. The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, a remarkable enterprise instituted by American capitalists. Cananea is considered to be one of the most important copper regions in the world, and a considerable preliminary outlay made has been justified in the results; the works exporting several thousand tons of copper monthly. It forms one of the most complete installations of its nature. The Yaqui River Smelting and Railway Company is a custom smelter, and affords a market for much local copper ore. There are other copper-producing enterprises under development, and the State of Sonora is thus a most productive source of the red metal.

In Chihuahua active development upon copper mines is being carried on, and the production stimulated by the establishing of smelting works. There is also an important copper foundry at Monterrey, in the State of Nuevo Leon.

In Lower California are the large copper mines and smelting works of Boleo, owned by a French company. This is an important enterprise, supporting a population of 8,000 souls, and its eight smelters are of a capacity of 150 tons daily, giving an output of copper of 11,500 tons per annum. With its own railways, harbour, and town, the enterprise is a self-centred community of much prosperity.

The State of Guerrero affords some copper ore deposits probably of great extent, and among these are several mines which are being developed.

In the State of Zacatecas is the important British enterprise of the Mazapil Copper Company, with an extensive property, smelting furnaces, and railway line, with also a long overhead cable system of ore-carriage.

Iron.—Deposits of iron ores are found in several of the states. In Durango is the much described Cerro de Mercado, a hill of iron ore calculated as containing 460,000,000 tons of iron ore, assaying 70 to 75 percent. pure iron. This remarkable hill was discovered in 1552.

The city of Monterrey, in the State of Nuevo Leon, contains a large ironfoundry and steel-producing plant, and two iron and brassfoundries, establishments which are of much importance to the country. Guerrero has valuable deposits of iron ore near Chilpancingo.

Quicksilver.—In the State of Guerrero are the quicksilver mines of Ahuitzuco, which have produced quantities of mercury. Durango has deposits of cinnabar at Nazas and El Oro.

Coal.—In the State of Sonora are extensive fields of anthracite, with seams in some cases 14 feet in thickness, and these are being developed by an American company. Near these are others, equally important, and the whole area is very considerable. Coahuila contains perhaps the most important coal-beds in the Republic, and a considerable output of coal and coke is being made. Other states contain coal-fields.

Petroleum.—In the State of Tamaulipas are the petroleum deposits of "El Ebano," worked by an American company. In July, 1908, an enormous "fresher" was struck at San Geronimo, near Tampico, and this became ignited and burned fiercely for two months, with a pillar of flame 1,000 feet high, which was visible for 100 miles. So rapid was the flow of oil when this was extinguished that earthen dams were hastily constructed to save the oil. Several other states have oil deposits.

Salt.—In Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexico, the salt mines of Matamoros and Soto la Marina produce quantities of salt. On the Pacific side of the country, Carmen Island, off the Gulf coast of Baja, California, exists one of the largest salt-beds in the world.

Lead is distributed through numerous states. It occurs largely as high-grade argentiferous galena. The output for 1907 was 73,000 tons.

Antimony.—The value of the production of this for 1907 was about 140,000 pounds sterling.

Tin has not been worked commercially, although great deposits of the ores of this metal are shown to exist, especially in the State of Durango, where there are several districts, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes. It was one of the metals used by the Aztecs.

The value of the total mineral production of the Republic, in round numbers, as shown by the fiscal returns, including the product of reduction works and the exports of metals, ores, and bullion, is taken at 15,000,000 pounds sterling—an excellent showing.

The number of mining properties held under title for 1907 are:—gold and silver, 14,950; gold and silver with other metals, 9,050; other metals and mineral substances, 2,350, or a total of 26,350, equal to an area of 873,000 acres. The method of acquiring mining property in Mexico is relatively simple. As to ownership, the only cause of forfeiture is default in payment of the taxes upon the title-deeds.

In Mexico the foreign capitalist and miner will find endless scope for his money and energies. Yet it is a feature of the industry, and of the excellent conditions obtaining in the financial world of the Republic, that good mines are easily financed within the country itself. Details of the conditions of the mining regions are further set forth in the chapter devoted to the natural resources of the various states.



CHAPTER XIV NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE, GENERAL CONDITIONS

Principal cultivated products—Timber—The three climatic zones— General agricultural conditions—Waste of forests—Irrigation—Region of the river Nazas—Canal-making—Cotton and sugar-cane—Profitable agriculture—Mexican country-houses—Fruit gardens—Food products, cereals, and fibrous plants—Pulque production—India-rubber and guayule—List of agricultural products and values—Fruit culture and values—Forestry and land—Colonisation—American land-sharks— Conditions of labour—Asiatics—Geographical distribution of products— The States of the Pacific slope—Sonora—Lower California—Sinaloa— Tepic—Jalisco—Colima—Michoacan—Guerrero—Oaxaca—Chiapas.

With its remarkable variations of climatic zones and great wealth and variety of vegetation, it might have been supposed that agriculture, not mining, would have been the great mainstay of Mexico. But the fame of silver has overshadowed that of corn, wine, and oil, to the country's detriment, in a certain sense. Agriculture must be the foundation of greatness, in the long run, of any country, especially of those which are not manufacturing communities—or even of those as time goes on, and Mexico is beginning to recognise this fact. The mines are valuable sources of wealth, but there will come a day when the mines are worked out, leaving gaping holes in the ground, and the silver and gold, or copper they contained, dispersed or enriching the private pockets of aliens. It has been well said that if the capital expended on mining in Mexico had been applied to the cultivation of the soil the country would have been four times as rich as at present. Fortunately those who come to mine often remain to till the ground, as happened in California and elsewhere. I had almost said "fools who came to scoff remained to pray!"

In former chapters the differences of the climatic zones have been set forth; the hot lowlands, the temperate zone, and the cold regions respectively, with their elevation limits above sea-level. These may be further described by their main agricultural products as—the sugar- and rubber-bearing zone, the coffee-bearing zone, and the cereal-producing zone, the last being the great plateau.

It is to be recollected that, rich and varied as Mexico's vegetable products are, some of the most useful to mankind were not indigenous, but were introduced by Europeans. Among these are sugar-cane, oranges, the cereals, as wheat, &c. (except maize), olives, the grape-vine, and coffee.

Cotton, of course, was native, and if Europe gave Mexico great benefits of staple plants, Mexico also gave of hers to Europe, as the chocolatl—our well-known chocolate—the banana, and other fruits.

Beginning with the tropical region, the main natural and cultivated products are: sugar-cane, rubber, coffee, oranges, bananas, limes, cacao or chocolate, tobacco, pepper, vanilla, henequen or hemp, rice, cocoanuts, ahuacates or "alligator-pears," yucca, indigo, maize, alfalfa.

Mahogany and other cabinet woods, and timber for constructional purposes, abound in the various zones, and some seventy-five kinds are enumerated, as shown on another page. The enormous tepehuajes, or cypresses, are famous—one near Oaxaca has a trunk of a diameter of 50 feet, 6 feet from the ground.

The temperate zone, into which the former merges insensibly, is less fertile, less well-watered, but much healthier, and produces matters of equal value to the foregoing, among them the grape-vine, maize, coffee, and various of those above enumerated.

Timber for constructional purposes is found freely in this zone, reaching far up to the higher region of the cold lands. Ranging from 8,000 to 14,000 feet above sea-level, the coniferous forests are one of the most characteristic features of Mexico.

This third climatic zone, embracing parts of the tableland, is capable of producing all the varieties of wheat, and does actually produce some, and the cultivation of this cereal is being extended. The maguey, or agave, is a staple product, yielding the famous pulque beverage, and indeed the lands which produce this intoxicant might well be, in the national interests, applied to the growing of wheat. The growing of the grape-vine, potatoes, beans, and other valuable products are sources of industry upon the plateau. Cotton leads in importance.

As regards the natural conditions of vegetation throughout the country, it is estimated that there exist some 5,700 square miles of dense forest, 250,000 square miles of well-timbered land, and about 500,000 square miles of uncultivated land. Mexican authorities state that "the regions of Oaxaca and Chiapas have no rival, not even Brazil, in the possibilities of production of excellent grades of coffee, in unlimited quantities; that the plateau can produce unlimited quantities of wheat, even to supply foreign markets; that Vera Cruz, Tabasco, and Tepic are capable of replacing Cuba in the quality and quantity of its tobacco; and that the northern states could supply food for millions of cattle." Yet, notwithstanding these conditions, the export trade of produce is almost nil, nor are the general methods of agriculture but backward as a rule. There are several causes for this—the lack of roads and railways, the lack of labour; and the general ignorance of the farming population. All these reasons are officially adduced, and strong efforts are constantly made by the Government to encourage agricultural development. Trustworthy information is supplied to the farmers, and seeds and cuttings of imported plants—olives, vines, fruit-trees, flax, tobacco, &c.—are gratuitously distributed.

The indiscriminate and wasteful felling of forests is now being restricted by the authorities to some extent. Great areas have already been denuded, and it is stated that this has had some undesirable effect on the rainfall in certain regions. The natives of the more remote districts—as in the States of Vera Cruz, Guerrero, &c., are abominably wasteful in timber-cutting, sacrificing whole trees for the obtaining of a single plank at times. There is a nomadic race of Indian agriculturists in Guerrero who destroy large areas of forest every year, burning the trees to plant corn upon spaces which they never use for two years in succession. These nomadic timber-destroyers are known as Tlacoleros, and they are extremely timid and superstitious in their dealings with the white men.

Mexico, like other Western American states, is a country whose agriculture depends much upon artificial irrigation. Whilst much good work has been carried out in this field, much remains to be done; and the want of irrigation works is almost as serious a drawback as the want of labour. The singular topographical formation of Mexico has robbed it of natural irrigation facilities—steep slopes facing the oceans and a high riverless plateau war against the retention and absorption of the rain-waters, and the run-off is consequently excessively rapid. Nevertheless proper storage of water in reservoirs during times of heavy rain, especially upon the great plateau, could accomplish much, and such enterprises should be exceedingly profitable, for, in certain regions, water is almost "worth its weight in silver." In another place I have made mention of the irrigation system of the River Nazas, which may be compared to the Nile on a small scale. The waters of this river, in times of normal flow, are entirely exhausted by the numerous irrigation canals which lead therefrom, traversing the plains for many miles, and conducting water to the large cotton plantations for which the region is famous. This region is known as "La Laguna," and its great area and depth of fertile soil are the result of an ancient lake-basin. So valuable is the water here that not many years ago feuds were common between the large cotton-growers of the district, who continually strove to deprive each other of the water in order to benefit themselves. Blowing-up of diverting dams and weirs with dynamite even took place, and things reached such a pitch that the Government were obliged to step in and establish a controlling "River Nazas Commission," under whose administration a proper regimen of the waters and irrigation system was enforced. Among the great estates of this region may be mentioned that of Tlahualilo, with which British enterprise is connected. The canal belonging to this company is some fifty miles long, and has a large flowing capacity, and there are numerous others of less volume. I spent some time in this interesting region, and so became acquainted with its peculiar conditions. The Nazas rises in the mountains, and has no outlet to the sea, as elsewhere described; and, dry in the dry season, its bed becomes a raging flood in the wet, a spate or wave of water filling it up from bank to bank, 300 feet wide, in half an hour. This great flood principally runs to waste in the Parras lagoon, and were its waters diverted and stored at higher elevations they would be of incalculable value in the increase of the available cotton-growing area. A project is on foot at present for a work of this nature, a barrage on the Nazas.

The name Tlahualilo, a liquid-flowing aboriginal designation, means "The Devil"! The river gives life to dozens of large cotton-growing haciendas, whose owners have become millionaires, as a rule, thanks to this miniature Nile of the Nazas. In this region scientific canal construction has, of late years, been well carried out, but formerly methods were very primitive. On one occasion I was riding with a hacendado friend over his estate, when we crossed the bed of a canal—dry and unused—which wound over the plain. "What is this?" I asked. In reply he informed me that it had been designed to irrigate a large tract of land, but the levels were wrong. In earlier times there were no engineers in the region, and irrigation canals were made by the primitive method of continually pouring water on the ground, or opening a little furrow and letting it run, and then following its course with the construction of the canal! This had been done, but for some reason an error had been made at the starting-point, and the whole work rendered useless. In justice to this primitive method of canal-levelling it must be stated that successful aqueducts were generally made, although naturally their course was often exceedingly tortuous and much longer than would have been indicated by the theodolite and level of the engineer.

In the tropical parts of Mexico water is also of great value at times for the irrigation of sugar-cane, as important an industry as cotton, and long lines of canal are constructed for this purpose, but under greater difficulties, due to the broken nature of the ground. Conditions of this nature are found in the State of Morelos, on the Pacific slope, where I stayed for a period, and great tracts of rich soil are irrigated for cane, and are exceedingly profitable. In the future a vigorous and scientific development of irrigation will greatly increase the agricultural wealth of the country in all its sections. Agriculture on a large scale is very profitable, and the owners of haciendas are generally men of wealth and position.

A Mexican country house, or hacienda, is often a picturesque and interesting habitation. It is not, however—like such residences in England—only a dwelling-place and home, but is at the same time a centre of industry. Surrounding it are great plantations of sugar-cane, cotton, maguey, or other agricultural products which the particular region may afford, and the great outbuildings comprise the warehouses, machinery sheds, and indeed the whole plant for the treatment of the product, whilst, near at hand, are the numerous huts of the peones, or agricultural labourers, to whose work the cultivation of the estate is due. The house itself is often of quaint aspect, and of some architectural pretension; Moorish-looking arches and cornices, and turrets and columns, balconies and verandas, generally of solid masonry in the wealthy haciendas, are set there to defy all time. Indeed, many of these have already resisted the ravages of centuries, and the great thickness of the walls arrests the traveller's attention. The roofs—flat in some cases—are generally covered with red pan-tiles dug and baked near at hand. Perhaps a small chapel adjoins; aqueducts and stone channels convey a sparkling stream of water from the canal communicating with the distant river, and a profuse garden surrounds the whole.

In this great garden are all Mexico's tropical fruits—pomegranates, oranges, limes, chirimoyas, ahuacates, figs, grapes, and a host of others, and you may wander beneath their grateful shade and take your fill. Above them, perhaps the tall, slender columns, and graceful, feathery foliage of the cocoanut palms rear. And over all is the blue dome of the Mexican sky. It is a peaceful scene, not without something of allurement.

The interior menage is more primitive than that of European houses, and often presents a singular whole in its abundance and crudeness combined. But hospitality ever reigns there, and the foreigner is always welcome. The production at present of Mexico's staple articles of agricultural nature is as follows:—

Cotton.—Before the time of the Aztecs cotton was cultivated in Mexico, and cotton-spinning carried out. The quilted cotton armour of the natives excited the attention of the Conquistadores, and they even adopted it themselves. Mexico has lands of cotton-producing adaptability, it is stated, greater than the United States; nevertheless she imports cotton therefrom in considerable quantities. The consumption of raw cotton in the country is estimated at more than 100,000 bales annually, of which half is produced in the country, principally upon the Nazas, the yearly value of whose crop amounts to some two millions sterling. Other states, however, also produce cotton, or are capable of large production. The total value for the recent annual production is given at about 3,400,000 pounds sterling.

Sugar.—The sugar-cane was introduced by the Spaniards, and was cultivated under certain restrictions. At present Mexico is considered an ideal country, in point of soil, climate, &c., for its cultivation, and the yield per acre is high, and as far as natural conditions are concerned the staple is a very sure one. Mexico, of recent years, has passed the point of supplying her own demands, and now exports sugar to a considerable value, although a falling-off in the last year or so has resulted upon disturbed market conditions abroad. The total production of cane for 1905 is given as 840,000 tons, at a value 2,650,000 pounds sterling (see page 293).

Coffee was originally brought to Mexico in 1790. Very good quality is produced in some regions, and the largest output is made from the State of Vera Cruz. The industry is subject to fluctuations, due to foreign markets, but Mexican coffee is in growing favour abroad, and the production for 1905 is given as 20,000 tons, with a value of 1,500,000 pounds sterling.