A Sportsman 383 



We had some apprehensions of danger from the 

 proximity of desperate white men, cattle thieves 

 who were having conflicts about us in the valley 

 with the cattle-men, and they seemed in large force. 

 This induced us to remove our camp west some ten 

 miles to the Santa Rita Valley, where there were 

 a number of deserted adobe buildings, besides a 

 partly ruined fort built a century before by Spanish 

 miners, where cannons were originally mounted to 

 defend the workmen employed in the copper mines. 

 These mines were very rich, containing much native 

 copper, and were extensively worked in the eigh- 

 teenth century, before any others on the continent 

 now occupied by the United States, and for many 

 years supplied old Mexico with its copper coinage. 

 The copper from these mines was transported on 

 mule's backs more than 1500 miles to the City of 

 Mexico. Copper at that time was high in price, 

 ruling from fifty to sixty cents a pound, now con- 

 sidered high at fifteen cents. From 1837 to 1862 

 these mines ceased to be worked, owing to the un- 

 settled condition of a region where the Apache Indians 

 held the country in tribute. 



In 1863 the Confederate forces, being in want of 

 cannon, invaded the region and had the mines worked 

 for copper to the extent of over a hundred tons, 

 which was transported across the country to Texas 

 ports. After the war, until the time of my visit, the 

 mines remained unworked until I became interested 

 in them, and they have been worked continually 

 since. These mines diverted me from the purpose 

 I had of writing a history of New Mexico, as I did 

 of Colorado in 1865. 



