CHAP. xxr. AMERICAN MINES. 123 



three hundred and fifty pounds for a space of six 

 hours. In the galleries of the mines (Valenciana 

 and Rayas) they are exposed to a temperature 

 of from 71 to 77 of Fahrenheit, and during this 

 time they ascend and descend several thousand 

 steps in pits of an inclination of 45." 



" We meet," he says, " in the mines, with files 

 of fifty or sixty of these porters, among whom 

 there are men above sixty and boys of ten or 

 twelve years of age." 



The labour of this hardy race had been directed 

 to the mines from the period when the Spaniards 

 had accomplished the quiet submission of the 

 country. It was employed in numerous small 

 mines till about the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century. But in or about the year 1630 the 

 mines of Guanaxuato began to be opened, or per- 

 haps only greatly extended, as the historical facts 

 before that period are rather doubtful. Since 

 that time, however, during the whole of that and 

 the following century, the progress in the labour, 

 and of the results of it, have been regularly 

 increasing. The mines of Tasco, Zultepec, Pa- 

 chuca, and Tlapujahua, whose workings had com- 

 menced at the earliest period of the Spanish do- 

 minion, had languished in a state of comparative 

 inactivity, but in the period from 1620 to the 

 end of that century had gone on regularly in- 

 creasing, and the same was the case with those 

 mines which are within the district of Zaccatecas. 



