Mining Ordinances of Spain. 151 



* The second instance was during the viceroyalty of the Duke de 

 la Conquista, who, in the year 1740, commissioned Don Philip 

 Cayetano de Medina, an alderman of Mexico, and proprietor of the 

 estate in which the Cerros of el Carro and el Picacho were situaU-d, 

 and Don Gregorio de Olloqui, an inhabitant of San Luis Potosi, 

 to inspect some quicksilver mines in the aforesaid Cerros, which, 

 according to Don Mathias de la Mota*, are in the jurisdiction of 

 the Sierra de Pinos, in the kingdom of New Galicia. The result of 

 this commission has not become known. 



* The third instance is that stated above, as having occurred 

 in respect to these very mines of el Carro and el Picacho, in the 

 year 1745, when the working of a newly-discovered mine of quick- 

 silver was taken up by Don Fermin de Echevers, the president of 

 Guadalaxara. On this occasion, we know from very good authority, 

 that the vein was found to be rich, abundant, and easily worked, 

 and equal to the supply of the whole kingdom of New Spain ; and 

 also, that upon the result of the reduction of some of the ore, con- 

 ducted under the president's orders, the cost of the quicksilver 

 amounted to no more than 22 or 23 dollars per quintal. 



* The fourth instance we shall mention, occurred previously to the 

 last, being in the year 1743, early in the viceroyalty of Count 

 Fuenclara, by whose order doctor Pedro Malo da Villavicencio, 

 senior judge of the royal audiency, set out for the purpose of exploring 

 some other quicksilver mines near Temascaltepec, the ores of which 

 had been subjected to several experiments and assays at Mexico, by 

 Don Manuel de Villegas Puente, factor of the royal stores, who 

 now accompanied the senior judge ; but their investigations failed 

 of any beneficial result, and it appears that nothing but urgent 

 necessity will ever induce the government to sanction the laws 

 permitting mines of quicksilver to be worked, like those of silver, 

 gold, or any other metal. 



* Yet, as it is evident that there are within this kingdom mines 

 of quicksilver, which the crown might at any moment order to be 

 worked, nothing is easier than to demonstrate the expediency of 

 adopting the same plan here, which has succeeded so well in the 

 famons mines of Guancavelica in Peru f- For, first, whenever the 

 supply of quicksilver fails, as has happened times without number, 

 either in consequence of war, of losses at sea, or of the delay 

 attendant upon procuring it from such a distance, the reduction of 

 the ore in the amalgamation works is brought to a stand, the 

 revenue is thrown into arrear, the whole kingdom suffers, the work- 

 ing of the mines is interfered with, and trade receives a check. By 

 setting the quicksilver mines at work, all or most of these evils 

 would be remedied, facilities would be afforded for reducing the 

 silver in an expeditions manner, and the amount of the tenths, the 

 one per cent, and the coinage duty would be augmented.' 



* Mota, MS. History of New Galicia, c. 62, n. fin. 



f Solorz. Folit. lib. G ; cup. -. 



