Mexico and its Religion Part 26

In government and economy of mines the a.s.sembly of Mineria of the valley of Santa Rosa have jurisdiction, but in litigations the judges of first instance have jurisdiction, to whom a particular law of this state gives authority.

In Coahuila, besides silver, there is found virgin iron in ma.s.ses of considerable volume and of extraordinary value in the Sierra of Mercudo, in Guadalupe, and other points.

There is copper in Putula or Rios and in Guadalupe. In these mineral districts we also encounter lead. _Amianto_ (incombustible crystal) also abounds in Niezca and in the vicinity of Monclova, as also nitre in San Blas, jurisdiction of San Buonaventura. In the hills of Gizedo, correspondent to the district of Santa Rosa, are extracted sulphur and copperas.

It is difficult to ascertain and to mention all the causes which have led to the decadence of the mineral industry of this state, because the reports which the authorities have remitted do not state it exactly; but there is no doubt that they are two, viz., the want of security occasioned by the frequent incursions of the barbarians, and the little affection which the agricultural people that occupy that state have for mining enterprises; that, as already said, they require recognizances, as well as capital and hands, things which are scarce enough in the vast territory of the frontier state of Coahuila.

D.

REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.

The spa.r.s.e population of this territory, the want of scientific information in its inhabitants, and the difficulties which have existed in the way of keeping up an intercourse with their fellow-citizens of the centre of the republic, are causes weighty enough for explaining the ignorance in which we live concerning the mineral riches of that interesting peninsula. Without doubt, if we are permitted to judge of it from the abundance of the precious metals which California of the North and Sonora contain, and their contiguities, we ought to infer that in the territory of Southern California the designated metals should be found in considerable quant.i.ties. The official notices which we possess in respect to Lower California fortify this conjecture.

Those exhibited by persons who lack competent instruction upon this point contribute in part to foretell what will be the grade of prosperity which will come in time with the developing of the mineral industry in this territory.

Southern California, by its topographical position alone, is called to occupy an important place, not only among the integral parts of the nation, but even among foreign parts of America which are bounded by the Pacific. If its first necessity is attended to, with the augmentation of population commerce will come to give it the consequent movement and animation, and the Mineria will come to complete the circle of its prosperity; so that it is now difficult to perceive the grand importance, commercial and political, which this despised peninsula, which is called Lower California, will yet attain when the transition of time and the sequel of events come to realize these Utopian offspring of a patriotic sentiment; but we will occupy ourselves with the statistical mineral notices of that territory.

There are nine mineral districts (_minerales_) which are now recognized in California: their names are San Antonio, Zule, Santa Anna, Muleje, Triumpho, Las Virgenes, El Valle Perdido, Los Flores, Cuecuhilas. There is a range traversing from north to south for the s.p.a.ce of forty leagues in that territory, which contains also a mult.i.tude of veins which have not been explored. In all these minerals abound, but the irregular and inconstant labor of some of the mines does not permit us to consider them as in action.

Explorations of some mines of gold and silver have been made in California, but they remain in the same state with the other _minerales_. One and another have been worked superficially, but their possessors abandoned them when they presented any obstacle, which made the working more costly, so that it is no exaggeration to say they all are now abandoned. In a country almost a wilderness (_desierto_), where the want of conveniences in exploration of the mines failed to engender the stimulus of acquiring and preserving the proprietorship of the discoveries,[85] and where, with the same facility with which they abandon one known vein, they proceed to work another new vein--in a country where the great part of the inhabitants might well be considered as tribes that have only reached the first grades of civilization, rather than organized societies, it is not strange that there is a want of mineral recognizances where only the mines at which the metals are easily procured, and not costly in extracting from the ore, are worked.

[85] The proprietorship of mines in Mexico is acquired by proof being made to the mining court of discovery and actual working; and is again lost by an abandonment of four months; there is no other source of t.i.tle to mineral lands.

Notwithstanding that which has been said, there are various residents of the mineral districts referred to that extract gold and silver sufficient to cover their commercial transactions, to pay their laborers and the salaries of their operatives, to procure certain necessaries, and to enjoy certain luxuries which many of their fellow-citizens do not enjoy. To ascertain to what value these extractions of metals ascend is extremely difficult for the want of data with which to aid any calculation.

The benefiting (extracting the metals from the ores) is no less imperfectly done than the labor of the mines. There are no haciendas for benefiting; many persons that engage themselves in mining speculations have in that territory one, two, and even five horse-mills, with which they grind the metal; this they mix with quicksilver and salt--imitating the process by the _patio_--in proportion of 50 pounds of the first and 75 of the second to 625 (25 arobas) of metal, and, proceeding by means of fusion in bad ovens, they obtain silver. Some others obtain it by means of vases of refining with the aid of lead.

The consumptions of the Californians in the extraction of the precious metals consist of quicksilver, salt, and wood; the first they have purchased in the last years at two dollars a pound, the second at thirty-seven and a half cents for twenty-five pounds, and the third at a quarter of a dollar a mule-load. It is to be presumed that when the quicksilver of Northern California comes to compete with the quicksilver of Spain in the mineral districts of the interior[86] of the republic, the price of this princ.i.p.al element for conducting the working of mines will fall greatly in all the nation, and that the Mineria will a.s.sume a grade of prosperity never yet seen in our country; and Lower California, by its proximity to the places of the production of mercury, will obtain it, without doubt, at a still lower price. The day-laborers, who work the mines of this territory, receive for their labor from seventy-five cents to one dollar; but there is not a fixed number, neither is their occupation constant.

[86] This term is applied to all places distant from the capital.

It is not necessary to speak of the existence of companies for exploring mines in a country where there is such a scarcity of population, and where there is not an acc.u.mulation of capital sufficient in order that a part of it might be employed in the hazardous enterprises of mineral industry. The judges of first instance are the authorities that in Lower California take cognizance of all accounts concerning the affairs of mines (_a la Mineria_).

In the river which pa.s.ses by Muleje and Gallinas, the inhabitants of those places collect the sands, from which they obtain small quant.i.ties of gold in dust. In another placer, which embraces an extension of seven leagues, they also extract some gold in dust in quant.i.ties as insignificant as those which result from the sands of the river mentioned.

Silver and gold are the only metals that have claimed the attention of the Californians, because they derive an advantage from their extraction, and not because there do not exist other metals less valuable, but which yield proportionably greater profit to the miners that undertake the exploration; these are lead, copper, iron, magistral, crystal of Roca, loadstone, and alum.

E.

THE REMAINS OF CORTeZ.

The account of the disposition of the remains of Cortez, given on page 279, is the one commonly received, and contained in works of standard authority. Since this volume was placed in the hands of the printers, I have received a new number of the _Apuentes Historicos_, which contains another account, which is undoubtedly the true one. According to this, when the body of Cortez was first brought to America, it was taken to Tezcuco, and buried at the San Franciscan convent, beside that of his friend, King Don Fernando. In the course of the following century it was taken to Mexico and buried in the convent of the Jesuits (the Pro-for is probably intended). After the Revolution, it was transported to Sicily by the agent of his descendant, the present "Marquis of the Valley."

THE END.