598 " Mexico ;" and " Mexican Illustrations" 



with the causes that led to it, in the beginning of the first volume, 

 is given with a terseness and power of condensation which would do 

 credit to an experienced writer : but we are desirous to employ the small 

 remains of space at our disposal in quoting a few of the notices of those 

 strange occurrences in the trade of Mining, which sufficiently explain 

 (if they cannot justify) the wildness with which, in all times, men have 

 engaged in that description of speculation ; and, we may add (reasoning 

 from the same premises), almost lead us to distrust the judgment 

 of the soberest individuals, when they speak of the profits to be derived 

 from the pursuit. 



Almost all the valuable mines in Mexico, it appears, have been dis- 

 covered by accident; and frequently by persons whom the discovery 

 elevated into princes, from the very lowest original conditions of life. 



The greatest mines upon the vein of La Luz (we quote here from 

 Mr. Ward) belonged to a " Captain Zuniga," who bequeathed four 

 millions of dollars by his will to charitable institutions : 



ff Zuniga, on his arrival at Catorce, was merely a muleteer, who visited the 

 mountains with supplies for the newly-discovered district'; meat, and every 

 other necessary, being then paid for almost a peso de plata (by their weight in 

 silver). Encouraged by the examples of sudden riches which he saw around 

 him, he sold his mules, and purchased with the proceeds (about 2,000 dollars) 

 the two mines from which he afterwards derived such enormous wealth. 



" His title of captain he bought in his more prosperous days : indeed, it 

 appears that, from his munificence, he almost bought the Viceroy himself; 

 for, on the great Besamanos days in Mexico, he used to appear at court with a 

 pocket-handkerchief full of gold toys, and tell Branciforte (at that time 

 Viceroy), as he passed him almost without a salute, and proceeded to the 

 private apartments of the Vicequeen, ' I don't come to see your Excellency ; 

 Soy un barbaro, y no se nada de Cortes (I am a barbarian, and know nothing of 

 courts) ; vengo a ver a mi nina (I come to see my little girl),' the Viceroy's 

 daughter; on whom the contents of the handkerchief were, of course, be- 

 stowed." 



The same strange chances led to the fortune of almost all the adven- 

 turers who enriched themselves at Catorce. The great vein of the Veta 

 Madre was not known, it appears, until 1778, 



" when a free black, by name Milagros, a wandering musician, returning 

 across the Sierra late in the evening from Matehuala, where he had been 

 employed at some village fete, lost his horse, and being forced, in consequence, 

 to pass the night in the mountains, lighted a large fire upon the spot where 

 the shaft "of Milagros was afterwards sunk. In the morning, he discovered a 

 cake of silver amongst the embers ; upon which he immediately denounced 

 the vein, and is said to have drawn from it, within ten yards of the surface, 

 ores producing sixty marcs of silver to the carga." 



Don Pedro Medellin, the proprietor of the mine of Dolores, 



{< upon one occasion, spent six-and-tlurty thousand dollars upon an entertain- 

 ment, given in honour of a godchild, at Saltillo ; and, at the time when the 

 Partido amounted to one-third of the ores raised, common miners have been 

 known to lose two or three thousand dollars in a morning at a cock-fight." 



The wonders of the mines of Batopilas, the author himself passes over 

 in a general description, as exceeding his limits in detail. 



From the Curwen (one of these), a mine belonging to the Marquis of 

 Bustamante, one mass of solid silver was extracted, weighing 425 Ibs ! 



