274 MINING IN THE 



CHAP. X. 



mine was constantly locked up, and the key 

 kept in possession of the governor of the pro- 

 vince, who could only open it in pursuance of 

 an order from the emperor, and was obliged to 

 close it again as soon as a specified quantity, 

 which was to be sent to Rome, had been taken 

 out. Every trace of the Roman workings is 

 now obliterated; and it is doubtful whether the 

 Arabs continued to extract much or indeed any 

 cinnabar, for all the present shafts and galleries 

 have been constructed since the discovery of 

 America, and probably owed their extension to 

 the great demand which arose for mercury 

 when the mode of amalgamation was first intro- 

 duced into the mining-system of Mexico. 



The two brothers Fuggars, of a German fa- 

 mily, took a lease of the quicksilver mine as 

 well as of that of silver at Guadalcanal, engaging 

 to deliver to the government 450 quintals of mer- 

 cury; but being unable or unwilling to make 

 good their engagements, they gave up the silver 

 mine and the cinnabar mine at the same time, 

 in the year 1635. 



It is doubtful whether the mine of silver at 

 Guadalcanal was much worked, if at all, by the 

 Arabs : if it was, it must have been in the early 

 days of their dominion in Spain ; for tradition in 

 the neighbourhood speaks of it as a discovery 

 made in the year 1 505, a few years after the final 

 conquest and expulsion of the last of the Moorish 





